August 2, 2014

Caleb and Levi both made the choice to be baptized, after turning 8. We went to a family reunion for Daddy's family and held the baptism there. There was a room full of people, all of whom are related to Caleb and Levi. It was pretty neat. We're so proud of both of them for choosing to be obedient and getting baptized into the restored Church. One cool story, the Grandpa who lives there has not been well, and had been in a care center. Levi prayed that he would get better so he could come to his baptism. And, he did. He came home from the care center just a few days before and was able to make it. A prayer answered! I know they made the right decision, and that the gospel is true and will bring them lasting happiness if they do their best to keep the commandments. We're so grateful for everyone who came and participated with them, helping give talks, provide music, and conduct the service (their uncle is the Bishop), as well as those who traveled to be there.

Another fun story about the day. We were joining their uncle's stake baptism day. They hold separate baptisms for each child, but all on the same day. Our time was 5pm, and they'd been going each hour since 8am. We got there as they were finishing the previous service, and when they all came out of the room and saw us, they said that they thought they were the last baptism and they had drained the font! The font that takes 2 hours to fill, the font that nobody had a key to open the place that controls the faucet. But boy, did it ever get filled! Several people from that previous baptism pitched right in and ladies were filling pitchers in the kitchen and wheeling them to the font on a cart. Men grabbed the huge garbage cans (that were clean!) and used the janitor's closet to fill them and then dump them in the font. One man went home and got a hose and hooked it up to the outside faucet. About then they got the faucet thing open, and turned that on, as well. By the time they had it full enough to baptize Caleb and Levi (being small comes in handy sometimes), we didn't even have all our family there yet! It got filled in about 45 minutes. It was amazing. So many people we don't even know that we're so thankful to for their help. Actually, most of us just stood around not knowing what to do, they were all helping so much. One lady pointed out, "this is the gospel in action." John thought we should have just baptized them in the garbage cans, it may have worked! But, we didn't. It all worked out, and their uncle said what a shame it was to have to drain all that water when we were done!