Touched by the Spirit

Thursday February 27, 2014

Temple Day

Tonight was a “touched by the spirit” evening.  We started by having dinner with Elder and Sister Martin Harris.  They are temple missionaries and live on “the Mormon block”.

I brought bread and also some wheat flour and some cracked wheat for them.  She wanted my help with looking at a recipe book that the other mission has.  They want to make it smaller.  It seems to have a lot of wasted space.  I brought my cookbooks too just in case there was something from the Ojai Ward she might want to include.  Then we got a call asking us to come to a baptism that was happening at 6:30pm right there in the ward chapel.  I offered to play the piano which is always a great treat for me.  

It was the baptism of an older couple.  I am guessing they were probably 75 years plus. 

Her knees were probably not very good. It took her 3 to 4 minutes to inch her way into the font with the help of two elders.  You could tell the whole congregation was holding their breath and praying that she would only have to be immersed once!  Two elders were in the font with her. One did the prayer and the main immersing, while the other elder supported her from behind as they laid her back in the water.  

As I watched this whole process, the spirit just witnessed to me of how special these people were.  This was such a visual example of faith in Jesus Christ and wanting to follow Him.  Our hope for just one immersion was realized and we all breathed a sigh of relief and watched her go back up the stairs and sit as she watched her husband. 

He wasn’t as feeble as her, but needed to take it slow just the same.  The same procedure was followed with the two elders in the font.  He was probably about my Dad’s size which wasn’t small.  His foot drifted up at the last minute, so he did have to be immersed twice.  But he was all smiles when he came into the chapel after his baptism.  He was sitting in the front row and turned around to the audience and proudly announced with a big smile, that he had been baptized twice!  He then gave his wife a little kiss and sat down.  

Some of the members then shared their testimony with the congregation. They will be confirmed as members of the church on Sunday.