who baptized and confirmed you? what else do you remember about your baptism?

My dad baptized and confirmed me. Uncle Doug was on his mission and I tried to get my parents to wait so he could do it, but they felt that 7 months was too long to wait. I was the only one baptized on Saturday, May 6, 1978; I was confirmed the next day during Sacrament Meeting.

Grandma May and Granda & Grandpa Sackett came over to Spokane so they could be there for the baptism. Grandma May cut my hair. She asked me how I wanted it cut, and I told her I'd have to be sure because, "If I don't like it, you can't put it back on." I wore a special sweater (it was white and had flecks of pastel colors and it looked like 2 sweaters, but was really one) and a long blue skirt ~ quilted with a ruffle at the bottom. On Sunday I must have worn a different dress, because Grandma Sackett had a picture of me in one labeled, "Melissa on her baptismal day."

We sang "Come Follow Me" as the opening song. My dad baptized me. I don't remember who spoke. But I remember the building and the room where the font was. It was a beautiful old building in Spokane that sat on a big hill (it's now the site of a Safeway shopping plaza). My Grandpa Dan and my dad were both baptized in the same building. Whenever I sing that song I remember my baptism day and how special I felt.

I was confirmed the next day in Sacrament Meeting. My Sunday School teacher was a young man who had recently returned home from his Mission ~ Brother Middlestat. He stood in the circle as I was confirmed, and I watched his knees during the prayer ~ he was very shaky. I asked him later if he was nervous, and he said that his platform shoes were hard to stand in.

After I was baptized, I really wanted to be clean and perfect. The first time I did something wrong, I felt so awful. I tried to remember the covenants I made that day and how good it felt to be clean and perfect.