"signs of the times" pt. 1

Been writing for a class of mine. Below is an excerpt of a longer piece about Mormonism.

On September 28, 1992, I was baptized in the Provo River. Kids are traditionally baptized in a font at a local church, but I’d seen a picture of John the Baptist holding Christ’s wrist, both standing in the currents of a tranquil river just before a dove descended from heaven, so I begged my Bishop for a change in venue until he agreed.

Dad had suggested a lake, maybe Deer Creek at the top of the canyon, but I reminded him that Jesus hadn’t been baptized in a lake full of windsurfers. Mom agreed that the hum of ski boats might “hinder the spirit.”

We settled on a grove above Nunn’s Park where the aspens and pines cleared enough for the family to gather. Earlier that summer we’d spent a few days there playing catch and grilling hamburgers. Dad had yelled when I lost the baseball in the river and when Claire, only five, dropped her hamburger bun in the dirt. Still, I liked the changing leaves and the smoothness of the river rocks.

Mom slipped off her shoe and dipped her toes into the water. “It’s going to be cold,” she warned.

“I don’t care,” I said.

We left at 7:30 am and arrived at 8. I sat in the back watching the kaleidoscopic flutter of autumn leaves as the mountain shapes shifted in the morning light.

My grandparents and siblings stood at the banks of the river as Mom, eight months pregnant and sweating in the near-October chill, zipped up my white baptismal dress. The Provo River was swifter than the Jordan, and as I waded out to Dad, dressed in all white and in the center of the churning blue water, I looked back at Mom who nodded, assuring me to continue.

Dad took my wrist, as John had taken Christ’s, and said the scriptural prayer, a prayer I’d memorized so I’d know when to plug my nose before being submerged. When Dad said “Amen,” I took a deep breath. The river rushed through my hair and in my ears and between my toes, all the places sin hides. As Dad pulled me out of the water, I gasped for air and watched my breath, like my sin, dissipate into nothing.