Malaki Moss Lillywhite gets baptized!

Isn't that one cute kid?  Yes he is, and we are so proud of him and excited that he got baptized today!  It was a wonderful, joyful event.  Unfortunately many of our family members could not be there, but he had great support from other friends and family.  Lou Anne and kids, Afton and Joel were there, and Jennifer, Paul and I.  The baptism was so nice with great talks and a song by Eliza!  Happy following Jesus and being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints!  Always remember that you are a child of God, Kai, and He and Jesus...and the rest of us, love you!  

The chapel Kai got baptized in is a newer one and it had this beautiful painting hanging in the hall outside where he was confirmed (by his dad).  I loved it and took a picture, but it's hard to get it square, so I downloaded this one.  Here's the info about it. 

Romans 8:16 – The Spirit itself beareth witness with out spirit, that we are the children of God. 

Among the greatest treasure of knowledge that we have been given is this: we are all the children of God.  This truth carries with it great blessings.  It should guide us in how we treat those around us and in how we view ourselves.  Eash of God’s children are of great worth with immeasurable potential.

In this painting we see children from many different cultures and backgrounds.  They stand with Christ, bearing witness with him that they are children of God.  All of the kids look directly at the viewer confident in the joy they feel in the presence of their Savior. 

When we strive to see others as God would see us, our hearts are softened, our minds are opened and the Spirit comes to dwell with us, bringing peace and joy.  

Clara Baptism & Bean bday trip

 We combined two things to make for a great weekend up north.  Bean had wanted to go on a trip for his birthday and go someplace fun, so we decided to combine it with the trip up for Clara's baptism.  It worked out great.  We left Thursday after school, stopped in Fillmore for dinner and got to Jay and Brynn's  in good time for some visiting that evening.  It was so fun to see all of them.  Friday morning we took Bean and went to Hogle Zoo for the morning.  We pretty well saw everything by about 1:30.  It's not a big zoo, but it was fun to see what there was there.  Then we went to Macaroni Grill for a delicious lunch.  And then we drove down and went to the Aquarium. It was so great.  We really enjoyed all of the amazing things to see there.  We got done in time to get back to Jay and Brynn's for dinner and helping get ready for the baptism on Saturday morning.  Clara was so excited and the girls were all being so attentive to her.  She was the only one being baptized from her ward and it went pretty quickly.  Lots of Brynn's family have moved away and her folks are on a mission, so the numbers weren't to big.  Some people watched it on Zoom.  It was nice that Bean felt good to stand in the confirmation circle.  We came back for a delicious lunch afterwards and then drove down to Lehi for an amazing violin concert that Clara and Madi were participating in.  It was really great.  Then we said our goodbyes and headed home.  We got home at a decent time and were back to the hot country again.  It was a great little trip and so nice to visit with Jay, Brynn and the girls!  Congratulations Clara!  We are so happy for you!

We gave Clara scriptures for her baptism.  Also included some really cool scripture/picture cards for her to use to look up scriptures on what we can do to prepare for baptism and becoming a member of the church.  Brynn sent a text/picture of her enjoying looking them up during church.  So glad she liked them.  I thought they were a great way to get her into her new scriptures and it worked!

Torin's Baptism!

 It was the exciting day, at last on December 17, 2022!  We all arrived and found that the font had not been filled.  It takes 2 hours to fill it up.  And then Ferf's high school best friend, Janna Combs Adams   randomly showed up at the church to pick something up...and saved the day!  She said we could all come over to her backyard and baptize him in her jacuzzi!  She called her husband to get the heater going on the water.  The bishop arrived and okayed the idea and then we had the program.  The piano player forgot to show up too, so Kennis stepped in handily to do the that for the program.  So we had the program at the church where it was warm inside only the room we were in and then we all caravanned over the Janna's backyard and Gaige baptized Torin in the jacuzzi part of the pool (it was 82 degrees, but it was really pretty cold outside) and then they quickly got dried and dressed and Tavin confirmed him at the edge of the pool!  So, it all worked out very nicely and kind of sweetly since Janna just showed up to save the day just like a good friend would do if they had the chance.  There was a bit of tenseness in the air because of the divorce situation and because Ryan was not able to participate in the ordinance at all.  The two grandpas, Paul and Theron, were the only ones allowed (by Ryan) to stand in the circle while Tavin confirmed Torin.  He didn't want to look like the odd man out I guess, so he made it so no one else but those two could be involved.  But, we were very glad that he finally agreed to let the baptism happen that should have take place a few months ago.  Divorce is not a pretty thing, but I'm so happy Torin did not have to wait any longer.  Afterwards Ryan also allowed Ferf to have Torin at her house for a couple of hours (even though it was his day to have him) for a family dinner.  It was a very nice time to celebrate this wonderful and very important day.  I'm so happy that it all worked out.  I gave the Holy Ghost talk and Grandma Borrowman gave the baptism talk.  I'm so grateful to have Torin on the path and moving forward with the help of the gift of the Holy Ghost to help him through the life ahead of him.  He's a sweet boy he'll get lots of help with the rough patches that are sure to be ahead of him.  It's a "SHOUT FOR JOY" day as are all of these type of days!

Joel and Zion get baptized!

January 8, 2022, was a Great To Be 8 day for these two boys.  Zion would have been baptized earlier, but then the family got sick, so it needed to be put off...and then it was time for Joel to be baptized, so they made it easy and did it together!  And that's kind of nice since they are pretty close cousins.  Zion lives in Cedar and Joel in Enoch.  Their dads did the baptizing and the confirming.  We had a big crowd since we had the Lillywhites, the Randalls, the Weavers and the Sheffields there to support the boys.  It was a really nice baptism.  The siblings helped out with the music.  Sweet Sarai led the music, Ellie, Eden and Noah played a trio of I am a Child of God on piano, viola and cello!  Bro. Randall and Paul gave nice baptism and Holy Ghost talks.  Ellie and Brady were Joel's witnesses and Dorothy and Juge were Zion's witnesses.  Juge gave the opening prayer at Joel's request and I gave the closing prayer at Zion's.  Lou and Juge planned and executed a wonderfully tasty lunch afterwards (the baptism was at 11 am). We had many kinds of delicious soup, Great To Be 8 pretzels, rolls, salads and desserts aplenty.  It was all very tasty!  It was nice to relax and visit.  We missed Supe and Beacher because they were out of town and the Smiths got sick at the last minute and couldn't come.  But we had everyone else.  Jay and Brynn came down and we got to have them stay with us.  

Happy Baptism Trigg!

 Covid-19 took its toll on even this.  Trigg's bday is in May, but at that time his baptism would have been almost impossible with the way things were shut down.  Trigg decided to wait a little while for things to open up so that he could have more people come and join with him to be part of this important step in his life.  Finally things are open enough that if he had it outdoors he could have the people he wanted most to be there and others could join by watching live in a Zoom session via computer.  Saturday, August 19th, we gathered in the backyard of a good friend to witness Trigg's baptism.  His dad did the honors of that and his confirmation.  It was very nice and good to see family there that we hadn't seen for a while from the Smith side.  All went well, and now we are glad that Trigg was finally able to do this!  

Happy Baptism Day Tahlia!

We had such a nice time going to Tahlia's baptism.  Only 20 people were allowed to attend the event.  She picked and chose and we were happy to be on the list of chosen.  When we got down to it, there were less people because of some getting sick and not knowing if it was Covid-19 and even if it wasn't they didn't want to come sick.  So it was a small, but loving gathering.  We also had such a nice time just being there to visit Jay, Brynn and girls.  We brought Sarai up with us and Sarai and Afton home with us (Afton rode up earlier with her mom).  On the way up we had fun taking a very long route to see some beautiful things we had been wanting to check out - Joe's Valley, Orangeville, Spring Town and going over and down the mountain to Ephraim.  It was an adventure with 26 miles of dirt road we hadn't expected.  But it turned out well and we loved seeing the beautiful valley's, mountains, reservoir and the old stone buildings in Spring Town.  When we got there it was a house full of girls having such fun playing together.  They played and played and for the most part got along famously.  After the baptism we had a little dinner - again small - before heading home.  It was nice to see some of Brynn's family at the baptism and after at the dinner.  Such nice people they all are!  Tahlia is a blessed little girl to have such a wonderful family to love and support her in her journey here on earth!  Happy Baptism Tahlia!  WE LOVE YOU!

Sarai's baptism and Zade's ordination

It was a "shout for joy" Saturday on March 1, 2020.  In the morning we went up to Cedar City for Sarai's baptism and confirmation.  Afterwards we met at the Weaver's with Lillywhite and Sheffield family members for a wonderful brunch to celebrate! (Oh, the two grandma's got to be the baptism witnesses - a first for both of us I think, since women can now stand as witnesses in different ordinances.  Noah got to hold the mic for Sarai's and another child from their ward's confirmations.)

Later in the day we went to Zade's Aaronic Priesthood/Deacon ordination with those who could be there from the Lillywhite and Smith families.  It was a sweet experience to see Zade moving forward in this way.

Top photo - everyone who came.  Bottom photo those asked to stand in the circle.  

We are so happy to see both of these grand children making great choices in their spiritual progression.