On Sunday morning, we had Jay's baptism. It was such a special day. He was so excited about it, and I feel he was very ready. The other members from our branch who are here right now came at 9:00am to our Dongjiao pool. We had asked the hotel if we could use the pool for about 30 minutes. We went inside, and Jay and Mike changed into their white clothes. Jay wore judo pants that I had found, and a white t-shirt. We stood around the pool and had a short meeting. We sang I am a Child of God. It was so sweet to hear, and it echoed in room. I gave a short talk about baptism, and Mike helped Jay into the pool. Jay says it was really cold, but I don't think he knows how a lake might have been! It was so neat to see Michael baptise Jay. We sang hymns while we waited for them to change, and then Rachel gave a really good talk on the gift of the Holy Ghost. We then ended the meeting, and went to our house for sacrament meeting. During the meeting Mike and the other priesthood holders confirmed Jay a member of the Church. Jay is the first baptism for the Nanjing Branch. I think it will be a special memory for him. While in our little meeting, we were singing acapella because nobody can play the piano. It took us three different songs to figure out a tune we could remember well enough to sing without music! After the meeting, we had surprise visitors. One of the teacher couples from BYU came and didn't know how to get to their University. They called President Yu, and he had a taxi bring them to our house. They were a lovely Hawaiian couple, who were so much fun. They joined all of us in our brunch, and Brother Panoke played his ukulele and taught us songs and dances. It was so much fun. They will be such a fun addition to our branch, and I know the Chinese students will love them! We had a wonderful day, and I really feel that Jay will have something special to remember his entire life. We all wished so much that we could have shared this day with our family. But we are happy to share the photos and grateful for the internet!
Our branch. The single brother, Darrin, forgot until President Yu called and woke him up. It's a good thing, because we wouldn't have had two witnesses! My camera lense was all fogged up from the humidity.
