jordan's baptism

[whew!]

We had quite a busy weekend! The whole week was busy for me! I had a conference for Deaf Mentor to attend on Thursday and Friday and Deaf Mentor training on Saturday morning.

[friday]

We worked together Friday evening to get the house picked up and housecleaning done.

[saturday]

I woke up early to bake. I made chocolate chip cookies, snickerdoodles and brownies. Steven made lemon bars later while I was at my meeting.

Deaf Mentor training meeting from 9 to 12. The focus was on the Shared Reading Project. After the meeting, I made a quick trip to Home Depot to get lightbulbs for the can lights in the kitchen and living room--several had blown out.

When I got home, there was just the lunch food prep and last minute tidying up to do.

We invited the family to come for lunch before going to the baptism. Only Grandma and Grandpa Swain and Mike were there for lunch. Julie and family arrived just as we were ready to head over to the church. The other families had plans. We had taco salad and lime sherbet punch. Grandma Swain made brownies for dessert.

We went to the church at 3:45 for Jordan to get a jumper and for him and Steven to get changed. We had some time to take pictures before the service started.






Scott and Bonnie's families joined us at the baptism, as well as Aunt Carol and Uncle Al Lemon. Aunt Carol told me later that Uncle David Allen had broken his hip and was unable to get around much.

President Taggart of the stake presidency conducted. We sang "I am a child of God" as the opening song. After the opening prayer, talks were given on baptism and the Holy Ghost. Then a brother (high council maybe? I don't know who he was) sang "I know that my Redeemer lives" a Capella. Then a sister (I think from the stake Primary presidency) read a little spotlight of each child being baptized. There were 5 children being baptized--three from our ward and the other two from two other wards. Afterward those who were there for the the Deaf ward children moved to the Primary room for the baptism service. Jordan was last (the other two children were girls). He was so excited he could hardly wait. When it was his turn, he jumped up (he was sitting with the other children on the floor in front of the font) and practically ran to the men's room and got right into the font and was ready. After being brought up out of the water, he shook himself like a dog and said, "Whew!" Everyone got a laugh out of that. Then while the fathers and children changed, we moved to the RS room where the confirmations took place. In the circle to confirm Jordan were: Steven (voice), Matt Connors, Scott Allen, Mike Allen, Uncle Al Lemon, Alan Zundel, Andrew Zundel, Grandpa Swain and Bishop Anderson. Our good friend Doug Stringham was voice for Steven. After the closing song and prayer, we socialized for a bit then went home where our friends that we had specifically invited over joined us for refreshments. We had a great time chatting and catching up with friends--especially our friends the Stringhams whom we haven't seen in a while (they are friends from our old ward in Provo).



[sunday]

During sacrament meeting, Bishop Anderson called up the three newly baptized children to the stand where he presented them to the congregation. Then he presented each child with a hardbound copy of the Book of Mormon and a Primary Children's Songbook CD set. Jordan shared his testimony in Primary today. He wanted to do so in sacrament meeting but there wasn't enough time.

It was a very special weekend for us!