Happiness is finding a golden family, teaching them the gospel and watching Orson baptize them today. It was just a perfect day! Amy and Brett showed up at church with no kids. That seemed odd, but they had decided that with the baptism it was going to be a very long day so they left the two boys with Brett’s mom until the baptism. I think they enjoyed being able to concentrate on what was going on. Orson taught a lesson on faith in the Gospel Essentials. During the lesson, Amy piped up with the comment, “That’s just like with the tree of life and the iron rod and how people who don’t hang on get lost in the mists.” Can you tell she’s been studying the Book of Mormon? She’s reading 2 Nephi now.
The baptism was scheduled for 12:15 (to get everyone there by 12:30). When we came out of Relief Society, Jeremy Priest’s brother and sister were there. He’s been promising to set us up with them ever since we arrived here, so we were super happy to see them. Brett’s mom, Carrie Rowe, was there with the two boys. And then three of Amy’s girl friends came. Almost all the branch stayed for the baptism and had brought finger food for afterwards.
Merja Priest played and sang, “I am a Child of God” with about 8 Primary kids helping her on part of it for the opening song. Michelle Olde gave the talk about baptism. She has a super way of expressing herself very simply about things. Then Jeremy Priest talked about the Holy Ghost and mentioned he’d only been a member a short time and how it had helped him grow.
Little Deycan, 2 years old, got restless and started heading onto the stand. Brett grabbed him and he started fussing. I was sitting right behind them and dangled a baggie with M&Ms so he could see it. He got down from his dad’s lap and came back to me. I made him climb up on the chair next to me and handed him 2 M&Ms. He immediately got down and handed one to his brother, Blake, who was sitting on the row in front of us. Then Deycan was back trying to get into the bag. I pointed to the chair beside me and he climbed up. We repeated that a few times, and then he became aware of 1-year old Emma Priest sitting on her Daddy’s lap behind him. So then he was trying to get her to take an M&M too. She didn’t understand what to do with them and dropped them on the floor. Finally he realized that Blake was the better one to share with. I was so impressed—not once did he eat both pieces of candy I gave him. He’s a sweet little guy when he wants to be.
We all went into the room with the font. Kids were kneeling in front, as usual, but as soon as Orson and Amy got into the water, a couple of them started asking loudly, “Is it cold?” (Never heard that one before.) Deycan was sitting on his grandma’s lap on the front row. As soon as he saw his mommy, he started crying and struggling to get away from Grandma. Finally, he quieted down and Orson baptized Amy. She left and Brett came into the water. Deycan started crying for him then quieted down quickly.
We went back to the chapel and watched a couple of DVD clips about how we gain and/or lose light and truth from the Doctrine and Covenants DVD set my sister sent us at Christmas. As soon as Deycan saw his mom come back in, he shouted, “Mom, bath! Mom, bath!” It was so cute. Most of us laughed. After the DVD clips, Orson still hadn’t returned so I shared a few thoughts about the process of watching Brett and Amy grow in light and truth. Hopefully that helped the non-members understand the conversion process a little better.
Because Brett will be working the next two Sundays, they were also confirmed today by Orson. After the closing song and prayer, we did the usual “convert the chapel into the cultural hall so we can eat” routine. Bless all the sisters’ hearts, they’d brought a lot of finger food and everyone enjoyed eating and visiting for almost another hour.
After it was all cleaned up, President Moulds invited us into his office to finish up filling out the baptismal forms. He commented that Brett and Amy are the most prepared couple he’s had the privilege of watching come into the church. What’s wonderful is that it was so definitely the spirit that prepared and worked with them. We could see and hear it each time we taught and talked with them. What a blessing we’ve been given to be part of their coming to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Today D&C 18:15-16 has extra special meaning for us.
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