Oh what a beautiful morning!

    The last few days have been the hottest and most humid of our entire time here, maybe of our entire life.  But nothing could put a damper on our baptism Saturday morning of Abel and Adozinda.  You may recognize their pictures from the lovely dinner we had with them on New Year's Day.   Abel is the most educated man we have met in Mozambique.  He has a doctorate, although we cannot tell how that compares to the same degree in the United States.  He works for the federal fisheries and does some travel, so that is also unique among people we have met.  His wife works for the television company here.  When we first came, he was attending, but his wife still had her own church and was attending sporadically. .  They have a son who lives in Maputo and is a member of the church.  When she visits there doing her grandma duties for a new baby, she always attends church with them.  A few weeks ago, my husband challenged the missionaries to see why this couple wasn't setting a baptismal date.  They had a testimony of the Book of Mormon and were just taking their time in the "African" way.  When we were traveling last weekend, we got a text saying that the had agreed to their original baptismal date of February 11.  This was fabulous news.  They are a couple who will add such strength to the church here.  Of note, they were legally married just last year.  They had told us they thought this decision would have a lasting impact on their lives, they just didn't know how.  Well, here it is!  You can see Toby's mind at work in a few additions to the baptismal font.  He had a ladder made and a platform made so people could sit and get in and out of the water more easily.  Abel is not the smallest of men and he was worried all week about being able to get out of the font.  They bore strong testimonies at their baptism and it was a great day with lots of support from the other investigators and members.
Here are some photos that tell the story of their happiness and ours as well:

When they saw this picture of the bulletin board at church this
morning, they loved it and wanted a copy.

Elder Peterson was transferred here only a few weeks ago.  Elder Rios
is from Brazil and has worked hard with this couple

I took this photo from my position behind the keyboard to show
what a great crowd we had at the baptismal service.  Our kids will recognize
my ever present water bottle!

Can't you just feel the love!!  You will notice Abel holding a bag.
It is the custom here to give a bag full of scriptures, marking pencils, etc.
to people when they are baptized.  It includes a Bible(which is very valuable here), a triple
combination and a Principles of the Gospel manual.



After her baptismal interview, we had Adozinda try out the platform
to give her some confidence in our creative endeavors.