The baptism

We have a wonderful young man in the branch, Jose, who has been wanting to get baptized for a while. His mom felt he wasn't quite ready yet, and that was understandable. So Jose waited for a bit.

He had two missionaries teaching him, Sister Robinson and Sister Crowther. They are both finishing their missions and going home this week. It was a wonderful surprise a week ago when Jose's mom said that she thought maybe he was ready to be baptized soon. But unfortunately, the schedule didn't work out for the baptism before the Sisters went home. Which was ok, because we live in the age of Skype :)

Yesterday, one of the Primary kids, Casey, was baptized in the morning. It was a lovely baptism, and we enjoyed the time with our friends. We put together a performance of "Teach me to Walk in the Light" for the Primary kids. Lige played the piano, Lillian played violin, and the Primary kids all signed and sang. The kids were so darn cute, I loved it! After the baptism, we went home and worked on Christmas presents somewhat urgently before going to a Christmas party with some friends. (This was another performance - we sang with our friends at their church Christmas concert. So fun.) We made it home, put the kids to bed, and sat down to check emails and text messages. Marriner had a message from the Sisters: Jose's mom had the morning off work, could Jose be baptized TOMORROW. We were so excited for him, and that the Sisters could be here for the baptism. But yikes - planning a baptism for 12 hours away! Out of necessity, it was simple - no talks, just a baptism. My kids (ok, fine, they were in bed already...their mom volunteered for them...) volunteered to do the same song from Casey's baptism for Jose's. Marriner texted the branch leaders, but didn't inform the rest of the branch - he didn't want to stress people out about getting to church early at the last minute. So a handful of people were at the church at 9am, ready to go.

The most amazing thing to me was Sister Nitta showing up with refreshments. Since she'd been notified of the baptism at 10:00 on Saturday night, I wasn't sure where she'd come up with Aussie bites, pumpkin bread, cookies and hot chocolate. She said, "Now I know why I bought so much stuff I didn't need at Costco yesterday morning!" And Aussie bites - I'd never had them before, and I'm now a fan. I guess they're a Costco thing, but here's a recipe, in case you have apricots, flax, chia and quinoa sitting around needing to be used up :)

Of course, as always seems to happen, problems occurred, and Jose and his mom were delayed. The branch president suggested we eat before the baptism, since afterwards we'd need to hurry in to Sacrament meeting. About 10:00 (church starts at 11) we decided to eat without Jose. At 10:15, Jose arrived and went for his pre-baptismal interview (mandatory) and we all met his mom. This is where Elder Nitta has his turn to amaze. Jose's mom is from Chile. I don't know where Elder Nitta is from, but I'm pretty darn sure it's somewhere in Asia. So we all dropped our jaws when he started conversing with Jose's mom in Spanish! We've got the coolest missionaries in the world.

The baptism started at 10:30. We had an opening prayer, the Merrill kids sang/played a song, the branch president gave a few brief remarks, then Jose was baptized. As he went to change clothes, the rest of us moved into the chapel for Sacrament meeting, where Jose was confirmed. It was so unusual, but just perfect somehow.

Funny - I played prelude music on the organ. When President Merrill came in at 11:05, his counselor stood up to start the meeting. I slipped down to the pews with my kids, and Brother Wardle welcomed us all and announced the opening song and prayer. Then President Merrill realized that the meeting had started, (he'd been getting settled and hadn't seen him start) - but Jose wasn't back from getting dressed yet. So he stopped the meeting, I went back and played another song on the organ, and we officially started a few minutes later. Ha!

Another funny - Marriner baptized Jose, and Jane went up to the font to watch. When the prayer finished and Jose went under the water, the splash scared Jane (who was protected by a sheet of glass) and she ran away screaming in terror. I don't know what was so scary about it, but we all laughed.

But all the humor aside, today was a fabulous experience for me. When you strip aside all the pomp, the ordinance of baptism is amazing all by itself. It was neat to be reminded of that.

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Back to a little humor: our Stake president had occasion yesterday to drive around the stake and put some papers the bishops/branch president needed for a training today in their offices. I don't know what prompted it, but he sent out a list of Bishop's Office Awards, including the cleanest, the messiest (no names, just "I'll call you in the morning..." Ha!) the most festive, etc. Marriner's got three awards: best Christmas decorations (we have a tree outside the office with "I Love You" handshape ornaments!), office with the best view, and "Office most coveted by the Stake president." Oh yeah.