It was a very long day.
Alauna and I were up late on Saturday night getting things ready. By the time we got to bed it was after
midnight and then we woke up at 5:30 to make sure we were ready to leave by 7 to
get to the baptism on time. We had three
college students staying with us for the weekend and also Alauna’s cousin David
and Jenny Benson and their son Charlie.
It was so nice to have David and his family with us that weekend. We had Craig and Sue Peterson as well as
Tracy Crump meet us at our house to help get everyone to the baptism.
The pool was about 40 minutes away from our house and we had
the baptism service before our regular Sunday service so it made for an early
start. Our branch has not had a lot of
children baptized in it so they did not have any white clothing. So Trevon had a pair of white pants and a
white shirt tailor made for his baptism.
He looked so good. He also got a
new suit made as well and looked handsome.
It’s always tough to be away from family and friends when we
have special events. This was no
exception. It was very nice to David,
Jenny and Charlie here. It was also very
overwhelming with the amount of support received from our Nanjing Branch
Family. We had almost 60 people at the
baptism from our church. It took most of
the people 30-60 minutes to get to the baptism.
We felt very loved and supported by everyone.
The baptism was a great experience. The pool was a lap pool and when we climbed
in it was a bit deep. Trevon could
barely touch the bottom. I was holding
him up to keep his head above water. The
other side of the pool as a bit more shallow so we walked over to the other
side lifting up and going under the lane markers as we went. The other side was only slightly shallower
and Trevy had to stand on his tiptoes to keep his head above water. Trevon was probably the easiest to make sure
he was complete immersed because he was already 90% underwater. It is always such a special experience to be
able to baptize our children and see them come out of the water clean and
pure.
After the baptism Trevon and I were in the dressing room and
had a special moment. We discussed about
how at that moment he was perfect. That
all his mistakes and sins had been forgiven because of the Atonement of Jesus
Christ. We also talked about how even
though he wanted to stay perfect he would make mistakes but through repentance
he could be forgiven. We also talked
about after he receives the Gift of the Holy Ghost he would have a constant
companion to help him make good decisions and help keep him safe.
After we changed we went back to the clubhouse where
everyone was congregated. While we were
changing Alauna had everyone write his or her thoughts for Trevon on a
postcard. It was so nice for Trevon to
have these postcards with all these thoughts written for him. That night after everything settled down
Trevon and I spent time reading every card.
He loved it. It was so nice to
have all that support written for him.
It will be something he will cherish forever. We confirmed him and gave him the Holy
Ghost. Greg Ferney, Craig Peterson,
Jasper Toomba, Jerry Yu and David Benson helped me to confirm him.
That afternoon we had an open house at our house for
Trevon. We had about 50 people come over
and had a great meal of BBQ pork (crockpot not smoker), salads, fruits, chips
and some great deserts. We had a lot of
support from a lot of people to have enough food for everyone. It was so nice to have everyone come over
celebrate with Trevon and just relax and enjoy time together.
It was an amazing day.
We are so proud of Trevon and his decision to be baptized and follow the
Savior. We pray he continues to make
good decisions and grow and develop. He
is such a good kid. At the end of the
day we were exhausted and so happy. I
tried to write this blog that night after everything settled down and I
couldn’t keep my eyes open. I fell
asleep after just a few sentences. It is
not always easy being in China, but this day was a perfect day.
