Ella's Baptism

On June 2nd Ella was baptized.  It was a lovely day.  We'd all been looking forward to it for a long time.  Ephraim and I were amazed that we're old enough to have an 8-year old!

Baptism is a special time.  In our church, we follow the example of Jesus Christ's baptism.  A person must be at least eight years old to be able to make that decision for himself or herself.  The baptism is performed by a person who hold the priesthood power of God, which Ephraim does.  And the baptism is by immersion, the person goes completely under the water, which represents a death and rebirth as a disciple of Christ.  Ella had made her decision to be baptized.  She said she wanted to follow Christ's example and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.  We support her in her great decision.

For the program Ella and Isaac sang "As a Child of God" in a sweet duet.  I love when they sing together.  Ella's primary teacher Sister Sewell spoke, and Ephraim spoke.  The baptism was lovely, and the confirmation was very special.

Funny picture from the "cleanest" person around.

Ella was too shy to share her feelings in front of everyone, but the next day at church she was given a chance in testimony meeting where she read what she wanted to share.  She was so brave!  She talked about the peace she'd felt when we'd gone to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House in Utah a few years ago in 2009.  She felt so happy and peaceful.  She knew it was a house of God.  That's where she first knew what the Spirit felt like.

My Fillmore family has a tradition for baptisms.  When my oldest sister Shellie was getting baptized, my mom sewed her two white dresses, one to wear to the church, and one to be baptized in.  Ever since then, every girl in my family has worn those same two dresses.  I wore them, all my sisters wore them, and all my nieces have worn them.  As a girl uses the dress, her name and baptismal date is stitched into the hem of the church dress.  A few weeks ago my mom sent the dresses to me for Ella's baptism.  We were so excited to participate in this special family tradition.

Now it was my turn to stitch Ella's name in the hem.  I thought it would be easy, but it WASN'T.  I was in the process of moving next door, so I didn't have all my sewing supplies.  I had to make do with the tiny sewing kit I had handy, so the Ella's name is in the darkest color thread, it was all I had.  I started stitching, and it always looked pretty bad, so I unpicked it three different times.  Think about it, my sisters have a million kids, quite a few girls.  I only have ONE GIRL.  This is my ONLY chance with this dress.  I had to sew it nicely.  On my fourth time I worked carefully, and though I'm not totally pleased with how it turned out, it's good enough.

  Ephraim and Ella prepared a special treat Sunday evening.  Cinnamon raisin bubble bread.  Delicious!

We love this girl!