Dry Baptism

It started out to be a normal Saturday.  I had a few piano lessons scheduled for the day and then a baptism to play for.  Elder had a ward/district clerk-training meeting planned and scheduled for later in the day.  Before we left for the stake center, we received a text from the elders who were having the baptism.  They said it was a weird request, but would we bring a bucket with us? All the way to the stake center we kept speculating what they were going to use the bucket for....a visual aid for a baptism talk? ..... to catch water from a leaky roof? What?  It was even more puzzling when Elder Soriano met us at the meetinghouse door looking like this:

It seems upon arriving early to set up for their baptism, Elder Soriano and Elder Balbin found the baptismal font dry, dirty, and full of litter.  Not good!  Since the water faucet to the font was locked, they immediately texted the facility management dude, (who should have had the font already filled,) to bring the key. But he didn't return their text.  So being resourceful elders, they started filling the font the only way they could: bucket brigade. 

They filled buckets from the men's CR, (I didn't think it was appropriate to take that picture). From outside faucets:

from the custodial closet (on the right),

and even ran a hose from another outside faucet through a window above the font:

I had to add the "Relief Society Touch" to the occasion.  The elders were too busy with water duty to think of little extras. Elder and I gave the temple picture to Sister Morales as a baptismal gift. (Notice the water still running in through the window.)

Elder Soriano was quite the quick-change artist.  From this:

To this:

Needless to say, the baptism started an hour late.  The baptism candidate, Sister Morales, is the wife of a member.  When Brother Morales started getting active in the Church again, Sister Morales became interested in taking the lessons from the missionaries.  The rest is history.  Her mother-in-law, Sister Morales, is the stake family history consultant.  Your dad works in the family history library with her on Saturday afternoons while I give piano lessons.  She is very thrilled that her daughter-in-law is now a member and her son is back into activity. 



Elder Balbin, Brother and Sister Morales, Baby Morales, and Elder Soriano 

  "All's well that ends well", I suppose. But the facility manager dude did promise to have the font filled with water ready for next week's baptism.  If it doesn't happen, I told the elders to tell him, "Sister Eddington said, 'heads will roll!'" I know, I know, big talk from a lowly and the smaller-half-of-a-senior-couple missionary.

Love, Elder and Sister Eddington