Penelope's Baptism

Penelope's baptism went so well.  I wasn't sure at first because it was so different then how things went when Tucker got baptized.  First off, we were kind of on our own for planning.  The church building doesn't have a font so we had to go to a different one on base to book the day.  Our ward really didn't seem to care when we did it so we just picked a day that worked for us.  Then we did all the planning.  We asked people to fill all the rolls, talks, prayers etc.  We even found someone to bring a keyboard because the building didn't have a piano.  Then I made the program and we just brought treats and showed up.

Aside from me planning it the ward was super helpful.  Everyone said yes to what we asked and people even came early to help us set up chairs.  I was surprised by how many people came!  They about tripled the amount of chairs we originally set up.  We've only been her 2 months so we don't know people that well and I felt a little bad for Penelope because barely any family could come.  But the ward really stepped up and most came out to the baptism.  Lots even brought treats.  I think everyone in this ward knows that family can't generally come to Japan for a baptism so they are extra supportive.

Penelope looked so cute we had to take lots of pictures.  She was really happy that Grandma and Grandpa Woestman could come.  She originally said the only people that could come were our family, both sets of grandparents, and her teacher.  I told her that people from the ward would come and she was really upset about it.  She told me she didn't want anyone to look at her.  But that was about two weeks beforehand.  I think she just needed time to process it because when the time came she was totally fine.

We did her hair in a crown braid just like I had when I was baptized.  It is so perfect for being out of the way and she loved it.  After the baptism she was super fast getting dressed.  Tucker had been talking about how fast he was and she wanted to beat him.  Tucker was fast, but I think she was way faster.  She had me to help her, where as when Tucker did it Bob was getting himself dressed and couldn't help Tucker.  Plus the boys had belts, shoes and ties to worry about.  Penelope just took off her wet stuff and threw on her dress so quickly she still had water running down her face still as we walked out.  Bob took about twice as long as Penelope, not that he was long. To give an you a sense of how long it was, everyone was singing primary songs and they sang two different songs before she came out, first verse only.  Then about two more and Bob came out.

She was so cute in the jump suit.  Two different people in the ward offered to let us use their dress to get baptized in, but Penelope was worried about the dress going up so we went with the jumpsuit.

I am so happy and proud of her.  We had lots of talks before hand about what it means to get baptized.  She even spent some time praying and really thinking about if this is what she should do.  I am really glad she decided to get baptized.

I put a copy of the program on here just so we can remember for the future.  Brother Serrano ended up not being able to make it and Bishop Lewis actually conducted.  Sorry it is doubled, I printed it like this with the song lyrics on the back and then cut them in half.