Amanda's baptism

My sister Amanda had the rare and wonderful opportunity to be baptized in the river Jordan yesterday; and no, it is not the river that connects the Utah Lake to the Salt Lake. It is, amazingly enough, the exact same river our savior Jesus Christ was baptized in by John the Baptist, nearly 2 milennia ago. 

Program designed by Lisa Judd

Baptism of

Amanda Robyn Judd

Baptism of AMANDA ROBYN JUDD

Presiding: Ray Graham

Chorister:  Jill Judd

Pianist: Megan Judd

Opening song: When I am Baptized

Opening Prayer: Lisa Judd

Talk on Baptism: Carrie Judd

Special Musical Number: Megan Judd “Come follow me”

Talk on the Gift of the Holy Ghost:   Jill Judd

Closing Song: Baptism

Closing Prayer: Frank Judd

Travel to Jordan River (Yardenit)

Baptism and Confirmation Performed by Frank Judd

The program was performed first in the beautiful Galilee Branch House in Tiberius, the same building in which we have sacrament meeting during our stay at En Gev with the students. This is also where Amanda changed into her baptismal dress, the same one that my Mom, Megan, me, and Lisa all were baptised in, and also her aunts and cousins on my Mom's side. Each girl who is baptized gets their name sewn in the hem of the dress.

The gorgeous Galilee Branch House in Tiberius

Jill with Ray and Bobbi Graham
(President Graham is the branch president of the Galilee Branch)

The Judd family on the balcony in the church, the sea of Galilee in the background

Amanda and Frank

After the program was complete, we hopped in our cars and tried to drive quickly to Yardinit, the sight we had decided the baptism would be at. Unfortunately it's kind of hard to hurry through Tiberias traffic.  Everyone in the city was trying to get to the waterpark.

Later... At Yardinit..

It was hard to leave the air-conditioned gift shop you had to walk through to get to the river. 

Once outside, as my Dad searched for shekels for the changing room, we immediately started to search for a shady spot for the baptism to be performed. There were two unoccupied spots.

Unoccupied spot 1

The first spot had natural shade from trees (while the second had a canopy set up) but had less space for sitting. Amanda was a little hesitant because of the dozens of big fat catfish floating around in there.

Amanda hesitating to get in the water because of the catfish

Emily with a otter.. type.. thing

Okay maybe not there.. 

Unoccupied spot 2

The second spot was more downstream had tons of space for sitting. Instead of catfish, there were tons of little fish that would nibble your feet if you held still.  

Right before the baptism ( If you look closely you can see some fish).  After the photos, they walked down the ramp to the river for the baptism.

After the baptism while Amanda and Dad were getting changed, we all ran to dip our feet in (instant relief of the heat :). The fish were very aggressive and tickled! I wondered how Dad could say the whole baptisimal prayer without laughing or something. 

Right before the conformation.  Amanda is wearing the same baptism dress worn by all her Fillmore aunts and cousins, and the name of each one is sewn into the hem. 

The story of Jesus' baptism in different languages.  The middle one is in Hawaiian Pidgin

Frank and Amanda with Mike Hansen, member of the Galilee Branch

Bad Combination: summer and Galilee

After Amanda was both baptized and confirmed, and after we had bought 2 big bottles of water (what a relief), we had a nice little (HOT) picnic lunch outside (where it was HOT) with the Stratfords and the Schades. (Did I mention it was hot?)

Running out of water

It was soooo HOT

Now for a bunch of random pictures I took on the way to and from Yardinit.

The way up

The road thru the Jordan River Valley was twisty and bendy.

The view to Jordan was stunning

View into Jordan

Tractor leaving a trail of dust behind it

Cafe cafe

Palm tree farm

The Jordan River

The way back

Jordanian flag

Mist hides the mountains over in Jordan from view 

Carrie and Jill were trying to read the signs in Arabic and Hebrew.  It's helpful when they are in English as well.  It's not too hard to find Yardenit, but it's tricky to find the Galilee Branch Meetinghouse in Tiberias.  We ran into a lot of traffic.

^.^

You can see the rich soil 

View into Jordan

Goats

The line of seven cars that Jill was holding up
(one directly behind doesn't count; it's the Schades)
[In my defense, I was going 80.  That's kilometers per hour.  Frank drove most of the 2 hour trip home, except when he caught a quick cat nap.]

 In Jericho
Tawfiq had told us to cut through Jericho. On the way back we bought some delicious fruit. :D

Tram to Quruntal Monastery

Jericho

Mosque

A lesson learned

I'm never going to Galilee in the summer ever again.. :P