Family and Friends

In one of my earlier blogs I spoke of a sister, Sister Mack, who had her appendix removed. Well before that happened we went with her and her companion to visit a family and to share the Family Proclamation. (The missionaries always like to take us along on the family discussions because for some reason it really impresses people when we tell them how long we have been married. We are never sure if it is because of how long we've been married or how old that must make us.) The sweet family we visited is a part member family. The father is actually a returned missionary, but he has not been active in the church for many years. The family was very receptive, especially the mother and the teenage daughter. Well Sister Mack has made an amazing recovery and the daughter and her younger brother were baptized on Saturday. The mother will be baptized next month and you can see the light in the father's eyes.
They always start the baptisms in the chapel and then go to the smaller room by the font for the actually baptisms. We rarely see the baptism because the smaller room fills up with people so fast. I normally stand in the hall and visit with those waiting to be baptized -well as much as I can with my limited Portuguese. While standing there, the teenage daughter's turn was coming up and I could tell she was nervous. I gathered from the younger brother she was scared of being put under the water. I stepped closer to comfort her and she just threw her arms around my neck and hugged me. I just held her until it was her time to go. It was a very special moment for me. We were speaking in a language we both understood. She did fine and come out of the font all smiles. I think this is the beginning of something wonderful for this family. Here is a picture of the family with Sister Mack - she's the first one on the left. The teenage daughter is right beside her, then her new companion, Sister Rouston, then the father and mother and younger siblings. The boy is in the green shirt. The other two women are friends.