Bishops and Branch Presidents…
We have been blessed with 5 new convert baptisms in the past week—three in Tickle Creek, one in Sandy River and one in the Pioneer Branch.
Our thanks to you and the full-time missionaries on such success!
The services have been outstanding! Thank you for following the guidelines we’ve shared with you earlier. It’s been especially gratifying to observe sisters (mothers in two instances) and even youth serving as the official witnesses at the font. Well done!
It was nice to see you also recognize the witnesses by printing their names in the program.
One especially telling observation was that in all three services the children were not invited (or asked not) to come to the font's edge. The reverence around the sacred ordinance was dramatically different from that in previous services.
At the risk of being chastised for not “suffer(ing) the little children to come unto me,” I ask that you consider not inviting the children to the font’s edge at future baptismal services. Along with the significant difference in reverence, the biggest benefit was this: in two of the services, there was a non-member father sitting in the front. In both cases, had the children been bunched around the font’s edge, those fathers would not have been able to even observe the actual baptism of their children (3 of the 5 baptisms were children, ages 9 and older).
Please note that the above is NOT a rule, but a request that you give this your consideration in the future and see if you feel it’s a change worth embracing.
Feel free to forward this to your ward/branch leadership, including your mission leader.
Gratefully,
President Lewis
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