Patrick has been taking the missionary discussions at Camp LeJeune and here, and wanted to be baptized on his weekend of leave - just two days home. Above are the Sister Missionaries who taught Patrick. The Sister just to his right, Sister Jacobson, was the first to teach Patrick the discussions, and we went and fetched she and her companion, Sister Bertucci, from up in Falls Church. The spirit at the baptism was incredibly strong, and I know that Patrick is being baptized for the right reasons, and that I could stop carrying the "mom stick" that I've been holding for so long and let Madison handle things.
With the baptism being on the fourth, the attendance was small, but that didn't matter!
Today Madison is heading up to the DC temple with Patrick to go through the Visitors Center and to see the "Joseph" movie. Poor guy has had a spiritually exhausting weekend! It was funny because he asked Madison to sing the only song he knew at the baptism, "Jesus Loves Me This I Know", and she said , "Um.... no, I'd rather sing 'I'm a little teapot'" He can't catch a break! She did sing his second favorite, "I Know that My Redeemer Lives'.
In the afternoon, after my second trip to DC for the day, I was dragging, and we went to our neighbor's home for a pool party and cookout. Our former neighbors have moved "up" to a gorgeous home on about five acers of lawn, forest, and gardens. Wow, we are lucky to know these people! Not only were they great company, but the pool and gardens were gorgeous, and John had built a big tree house around this big old tree. We blew up the fireworks are are legal in Virginia, which are very piddly, and watched the police chase down people who had traveled over the border to Pennsylvania for some illegal fireworks.
Aunt Laura came down and we played "Ultimate frisbee" and some went to "Transformers".
My good friend Sachiko passed away on June 26th after a year of battling stage 4 lung cancer. Most of the week was spent thinking about her.
