Matthew's Baptism

My Men in White

Yesterday was Matthew's baptism. He turned 8 on December 29th and yesterday was his lucky day. Uncle Andrew got to baptize Matthew, which was really exciting for him since this was Uncle Andrew's first time to do this. Uncle Andrew had to memorize the words in English. He had already completed this task in Italian (just in case).

Uncle David thought that Matthew and Uncle Andrew were lucky because we have water heaters in America and therefore the water would be warm instead of freezing cold. Uncle David was wrong. The water, according to Andrew, was freezing cold and, unfortunately, only just above his knees, so it took a bit of acrobats to get Matthew all the way under. The cold water shocked Matthew and he came up sputtering.

That reminds me of my baptism when the water was also freezing cold. I wrote in my journal later that day: The water was so could! [sic].

Since there were two little boys who turned eight right around the same time, Matthew got to share his baptism day with a boy in his ward named Lilo. Lilo's grandfather gave a talk on baptism and then I led everyone in singing a song that my Grandma Conrad wrote about baptism. It's become somewhat of a favorite among my family, especially since her passing.

After the baptisms, Uncle David gave a talk on receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost. He did a great job at putting it in words that an eight year old could understand. He compared the Holy Ghost to a bicycle that you don't own. Your goal is to get home as fast as possible so a friend loans you the bike for a while so that you can go a little faster...but eventually you have to give the bike back. This continues on for a while, with your friend lending you his bike whenever you're too tired, or need an extra pick up.

Then one day, the friend said, "Why don't you keep the bike? I think you're ready for it."

That's like when we get the Gift of the Holy Ghost. We can use it forever, as long as we take care of it. Just like a bike won't work if you pop its tire on glass, or get its wheels tangled in weeds, the Holy Ghost won't work if you don't heed its promptings and go down paths you shouldn't.

After David finished his talk, Uncle Andrew got to confirm Matthew a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and give him the gift of the Holy Ghost. Andrew was unaware that he was going to do this, so the Bishopric had to do a quick re-cap of the proper words in English.

All in all, it went over well. The spirit was strong, and it was fun to see the family members that came.

After the baptism, we left to go home so that Andrew could do homework (he wrote a nine page paper yesterday) while everyone else left to have lunch at a restaurant. Apparently there were mishaps in that department involving the wrong restaurant name and people getting lost, but I wasn't there so I can't be sure.

While we were on the freeway however, we had a mishap of our own. Andrew was telling my why he and Matthew had taken so long to get out of the dressing room after the baptism (I think it involves Matthew not wanting to get dressed and face the crowd). All of a sudden he groans, "I left my wet clothes in the dressing room..." So, although it wasn't a terrible mishap, it did cost us quite a few minutes of our time.

Kelli, if you are missing a pair of Matthew's underwear, they are most likely still in the men's dressing room soaking wet. Andrew didn't see them in there, so maybe you were more on top of things that we were!