Baptism

Saturday, P-day: we both slept in -- very well deserved after such a busy week. I walked down to get a few things for us at the grocery store, plus make copies of the new key for our external apartment door, which they re-keyed yesterday. At the little farmers' market right outside our door, which is only open three mornings a week, I also bought some pizza romana, a luscious local pizza-style bread with salt and oil, fresh and warm from the oven. Otherwise we were home all morning and most of the afternoon. It was so nice to have time to clean the floors and do a big bunch of laundry. Dee even cut her own hair, which was a feat without a back mirror view. We both worked on our lessons for tomorrow, and I polished up my talk, which involved translating a lot of quotes and stories into Italian.

This evening we went to a baptism for a GANS-age girl, Ylenia. She has been coming to some things at the Institute for a while, and meeting with the sisters for nine months. She is sharp and seems like a real sweetheart. Her parents aren't supportive at this time, but hopefully will be softened by the love of the ward.

The turnout was pretty good, and it was a nice ceremony. When she came out of the water, she slipped and fell! Marble floors and water are a bad combination. It wouldn't have been too good if she didn't survive her baptism! Anyway, she was a good sport about it and recovered quickly. During the baptism meeting, two GANS girls gave the talks, and Ylenia bore a brief testimony after her baptism.

We spent the evening working on our lessons/talks for Sunday. Hopefully our voices will be strong enough, and our coughing under control, that we can manage to present our stuff well. I love preparing talks and lessons: the process of studying, praying, and reflecting on the topic is always wonderful for me.