Saturday, July 20, 2024

July 20, 2024

Saturday, July 20, 2024

I got to baptize Julie Charlemagne today
Thoughts on that experience.
46 years since my last baptism in the Ocean

Today was a very special day as I was asked to baptize a sister that the elders have been teaching for some time now. It was a throwback to 46 years ago when I had the chance to baptize Sister Curren in the ocean while serving my mission in Ireland.

When we got to the church she was not there. The elders were a little worried that she may not show up as they had been trying to call her but she was not answering.

I realized I forgot my name tag so I told them I was going to jump in my truck and run home and get it. It took 20 minutes round trip. When I got back to the church, Julie was there and dressed in her white clothes. She looked really pretty. They are so quiet you really never know what they are thinking. I think she was excited about it. I'm not sure how I got to be the one to baptize her as there are plenty of others that could have done it. Anyway. I considered it a real privilege to be able to do so.

Brother Yohan conducted the meeting and gave the talk on baptism. It was really good. He told about his conversion and baptism which I had never heard before. I guess he was kind of looking for something just before he met his wife. She introduced him to the elders at some point and as they say, the rest is history.

After his talk we loaded up and went over to Vigie Beach for the baptism. The weather was nice but a little windy and the ocean was a bit choppy. Anyway, it all worked out and we only had to do the baptism once.

There are always people around when we do them and I wonder what they are thinking. If there's any close, they always seem to move away either out of respect or not to be associated with us.

After the baptism we went back to the church and sister Santos gave a very good talk on receiving the gift of the holy Ghost.

After the baptism we had brownies and visited for a bit. But sister Julie wanted to get home because her son has been sick. I didn't realize that she lived up in what Elder Hall always called level two driving. Level two is when you get in areas where the roads are windy and narrow and steep and they're barely wide enough for traffic to go one way. But the traffic is going both ways. One time as I was passing a car I looked into my rear view mirror and my back and of the truck missed the car by probably less than a half inch. I felt blessed that our daily prayers every time we go out that will be protected and will not wreck. The truck are answered often and I think they were certainly answered there.

Yohan hitched a ride with us and we ended up picking up his cousin, I think. She had been to the market and needed a ride home. We hadn't really planned on going over to his side of the mountain today, but now we had two passengers so I guess it made it a little more worth our time.

I don't talk much about spiritual side of things, but they happen quite often and sometimes they're just simple and subtle so they're hard to put into words. Like having the opportunity to baptize Julie today meant a great deal to me even though the elders did most if not all the work. I was just the cleanup guy. Anyway, julie radiated the spirit and in her white dress look like she was ready to go to the temple. In fact. Yohan said to us while we were staying there, you guys looked like you're going to the temple not to a baptism.