October 17th 2014 -- BAPTISM

It is a very cold summer day today, and last night we had 80 km winds and rain all night long! Rain like we have never seen before, even in Florida! Yesterday was the same.  Kind of an odd summer right now.  Pretty sure we will miss these 3 days of weather all too soon.

Last Saturday, October 11th, our grand-daughter Libby was baptized by her dad Spencer.  On August 2nd, our grand-daughter Mia was baptized by her dad Ryan. Those are very important events and close to our hearts! No baptism can ever take the place of a baptism in the family! They matter SO much, even when we can't attend them, they bless our lives and make us happy.

Going along with that, last Friday, October 10th, the Ranasinghe's were baptized.  They are the couple from Shri- Lanka (and their daughter) who became interested in the Church when she (the mom) was walking around the temple grounds 5 months ago and felt profound peace there. There was a question for a while if the father, David, would actually be baptized, as he is out of town 85% of the time, so the discussions were more difficult for him.  What a blessing that the whole family did it together!

It was a very special evening.  Seeing the dad come up out of the water was just amazing!  Prior to the actual baptism, I had a spiritual experience that stays with me even at this minute. The senior missionary men were asked to sing 'How Great Thou Art' in the chapel after the talks. It is Dave Ranasinghe's favorite hymn (mine as well). There were maybe 10 of them who sang, and it was so beautiful.  I watched them,in their suits and ties, (a couple just in white shirts) with their missionary badges and a glow on their faces and listened to those words as if they were brand new.  The spirit was so strong, the sound was extraordinary and it was one of those perfect moments in life. I knew I was so blessed to be there, that I was exactly where I was suppose to be and that the Church is so true that it astounds me, even at my age. The thought that came so strongly was, 'who would have thought, a couple of years ago, that we would be serving a mission in Australia and have an evening like this one?

Watching them was such a testament of the power of the priesthood, you couldn't help but feel that. Also, it was so touching to know that we had come to know and love and respect these men, and that I am fortunate enough to have Elder Allen as my eternal companion. I was so proud of him in that moment and so in love with him.  How does that still happen after 46 years? 

This is probably the only baptism we will witness while we are here, but we are grateful, and it was enough.

We are so busy, it is a true blessing.  Stories just seem to come out of the woodwork right now. It takes a lot longer to get them approved and posted at present, but we are confident that will improve. We love what we are doing, even though most of the time, we are very tired at night. Extra projects just keep coming at us and it's hard to know which ball to keep in the air, and how!!

The times we can break away on a Saturday just hold us together and keep us sane.  Last Saturday we went to Palm Beach (really, in Australia).  It was the best beach we've seen so far.  Lots of pine trees and not very busy.  It was a bit cool that day, which was perfect! We sat and read and talked and soaked in the beauty around us.  We took our camping chairs from K-Mart and enjoyed every minute. I walked up the road and got us 'take out' from this little outside place.  We felt like we had died and gone to heaven, and came home feeling totally decompressed.

Conference was wonderful, we watched it on our little i-pad in our flat, for the most part. Didn't even matter, it was still amazing, even if it had to buffer pretty often, we still loved it.  Just different than Utah where you can all watch it on your big-screens, live.  Such a blessing!

A couple of days ago we got a request from our boss that was interesting.  Bruce Lindsay, the former KSL anchor and present mission president in Perth, asked for a couple of PA people to coach 2 of his missionaries prior to a radio interview, as he was not in the city at that time.  We got elected.  So, we did a little research of what their responses should be to various questions and called the Elders. We were so ready to be of help, and save their day!  Every scenario we presented to them, they had the absolute perfect answer.  EVERY time! We didn't come away from that phone call feeling very helpful, but it sure boosted our confidence in the divine spirit that guides these young missionaries.  We all know they have it, theoretically, but it's something else to see it literally. They are so amazing!! There is just no other word for it. (we could say awesome, but they tell us that's WAY to American). However. . . they were AWE --SOME!!

We need to end this epistle for now. We are so grateful for e-mail and face-time. Don't know how we would have done a mission 20 years ago?  Just when we feel all weird and missing home, someone calls or writes and it does us SO much good.  Thank you all. Please don't think we are ever too busy for that!!  Hope you are all well and that you all know we love you. You are all, and forever will be, our best 'mates'!