Sunday

Sundays are always full days for us. This one, in particular, was quite eventful with planned events, and then there were fun little things thrown in here and there like Jack being extremely sick. Or, Jane wetting her pants. Or, how about Jane writing all over the non dry-erase wall with a dry-erase marker. That one was fun too. The main event was fantastic and I wouldn't have missed it for the world. After a long wait, one of our favorite families (I know I say that a lot, but they are all so amazing) was baptized on Sunday! They have been waiting for quite some time since there were quite a few legal things going on, but somehow they were resolved enough that they were allowed to be baptized, something they've been wanting for as long as I have been acquainted with them.

Like I said before, Jack was quite sick on Sunday morning, just like he was for most of Saturday, unfortunately, but we knew we couldn't miss the baptism, so we did our best to clean him up, take him along, and not let him get too close to the other kids. When he realized what we were making him go to church for when he was feeling so lousy, he totally lit up. He adores Abby and Mithu, the two youngest members of the family, and wouldn't want to miss this either. He knows it's a big day. Besides just wanting to be there to support our friends, I was asked to speak, and Jeff was actually asked to perform the baptisms for the parents and oldest brother, which he was very happy to do! How could we miss such an event? (If you're thinking we're terrible parents for taking sick Jack to church, you might be right. Jeff did take Jack home right after the baptisms which made for the shortest Sunday meetings for Jeff by about 5 hours!)

Here's the Velmurugu family before their "first birthday" as they like to call it. Also pictured are "our" Elders, Olson and Yeats (love these guys), Diva (who baptized the younger sons), Jeff, and Jane.

I first met this family back in June when seeing off my friend Mery and her family to Holland. Who knew a family that I met and visited with so briefly would soon become such a dear family to me?

It's an awesome thing to watch a family of such faith enter into the waters of baptism together. It's an important decision, and no doubt they will find strength in each other as they continue to learn about the gospel together.

I can't say enough about how grateful we feel for the experiences we are having here. The people we have come to know are absolutely priceless, and I hope by writing things down, we can keep things fresh in our minds for years to come.