What makes a missionary smile?

Meet Elder Lang, who arrived from the Missionary Training Center in Utah to Rosignol, Guyana, about 25 days ago. In spite of the baggy and ocean-stained baptismal pants he is wearing, do you detect a smile and look of satisfaction his face?

Just look below to see what might have helped him to have that smile...

Yes, Saturday, September 27, was a pretty phenomenal day at the beach in Rosignol, Guyana. 15 people walked out to the ocean with Elder Lang, 3 other elders and President Tenisingh, the Rosignol Branch president, and were baptized.

Wouldn't you just have loved to have been there? Wouldn't that have just put a smile on your face, too?

Luckily for us, we were able to ride this small ferry (called the Launch) to the other side of the river where Rosignol is located and witness this special day. It was 1 pm and all of us on this ferry were feeling pretty hot and sweaty!

I looked out the open door from where I sat on the ferry and noticed these 5 bulging bags of slaughtered chickens which were about to share our ferry ride across the river. They were laying right on the deck in the hot sun. How many hours do you suppose they would have to wait before they would be refrigerated?

When we arrived at the Rosignol chapel, we were met by these four darling elders who are serving in the Rosignol Branch... (L to R) Elders Lang, Baantjer, Jones and Sarager.

Their candidates for baptism were all dressed and ready for their baptisms in the sea and look to see if they look excited! Most Guyanese won't smile for photos, but I assure you they were all excited! I got hugs from most of them.

After the first part of the baptismal service in the church, we stuffed ourselves in a van in preparation for our ride to the beach for the baptisms. We were feeling pretty cramped in that van when someone realized we had closed the door before everyone there had made it inside. So, we opened the van door and crammed some more until all 31 persons had squeezed in, not including our driver. I was sitting on some strange man's lap and everyone was seated similarly!

How did Elder Bullock rate the front seat? I guess it is because he is old and they often give us old people special privileges.

It was a short walk to the beach from where the van driver dropped us off.

First we crossed the trench...

Then, continued down a path until we arrived at a small grassy area at the edge of the sea.

The tide was way in and the water was close to the grass so they were able to do the baptisms in the sea, rather in the trench they had just crossed as they had had to do once in the past when the tide was too far out!

Here are Elders Jones and Baantjer with their group, just before their baptisms!

Legal marriages had to be performed for two of the women who were living in common-law marriages the day before this baptism.

And Elders Lang and Sarager with their group. President Tenisingh, who is the 3rd from the left, was pretty excited that he was going to be baptizing his sister and her daughter, who he is standing between. And notice there are two adult men....whoopie!

I coaxed them all to stand in that long line that you saw at the beginning of this blog and then they started their walk out to the sea. Most Guyanese cannot swim so this could be a scary experience for them!

They had to walk out pretty far before they could get to where it was deep enough to baptize them by immersion (waist deep).

We waited for a what seemed like a long time while they did all 15 baptisms.

Finally they headed back to shore.

We stuffed ourselves back in the waiting van. Remember, that most of them are sopping wet and no one had a towel. This time the dry ones got to sit in the front seat, so that meant I was sitting there, too!

When we arrived back at the church, everyone quickly changed into their dry clothes (all except the elders) and the service continued with a testimony meeting.

These little girls had waited with their mother so that the older girl could bear her testimony in the meeting. Her 7 year old testimony was precious! If you've read my previous blogs, you may recognize these children as 3 of Tasha's children. The little girls are both wearing dresses and headbands I brought to them from "the box from Carol".

We shared our testimonies, the service ended and we dashed out to the street to catch a "car" back to the Launch (ferry) so we could make it back across the river to more baptisms in New Amsterdam.

I carried 6 of the 20 wet muddy baptismal outfits on my lap as we rode back across the river on the ferry.

I forgot when I insisted on taking the wet outsfits home to wash that I would get all wet, too! But, there was no time to run home and change.

Luckily, we arrived just in time to see...

13 year old Martin's baptism (performed by Elder Bryan) and...

9 year old Aubrey's baptism which was done by our district president, Pres. Phagwah.

Elders Bishop and Hamilton, our zone leaders are left foreground of the photo.

Who is this little cutie? She is Aubrey's little sister wearing another one of the little dresses from "the box".

What a great day it was in Rosignol and New Amsterdam, Guyana, and yes, we were thrilled to be there and to experience it all!