I Can't Wait Until I'm Eight?

This month in primary the kids are learning about baptism. I have discovered that this is a big concept for a little three year-old brain. On the way home from church this Sunday I asked the kids the customary question, "what did you learn today." Max gave his standard answer, "play with toys." Gove however told me that he learned about baptism and then said quickly, "I do not want to be baptized!" This was followed by a long list of questions from Nolan and I about why he did not want to be baptized. We tried to explain that he had a lot of time before he turned eight, more than four more birthdays and that by then he will want to be baptized. This was followed by a quick, "but I will miss you!" from Gove. Now we were really confused. Where did he think he was going after baptism? We then named off a long list of people, including mom and dad, who had been baptized and were still around. After that we tried to name a list of children he knew who would be baptized around the same time as him. When we got to Karson, he again shouted, "No! I will miss him!" We again asked what he thought would happen when he was baptized, but he just told us again that he would not be baptized. We let it go. Gove did not. He infrequently told us that he did not want to be baptized and almost acted like we were lying when we told him that we had been baptized. He kept talking about the Holy Spirit and asking if we had the Holy Spirit. So I thought, oh he's afraid of the Holy Ghost! That explains it! I talked with him about how the Holy Spirit helps us make good choices and makes us feel happy when we are sad, that it is not actually a ghost and was not scary. He acted completely unfazed by the revelation and it was clear that the Holy Ghost was not his concern. Here comes the light bulb moment when I figured out what was going on in his little brain. He finally asked me if Bunner and Papa were baptized. I told him that they were baptized. Bunner and Papa are my great-grandparents who died shortly before Max was born. About a week ago Gove started asking a lot of questions about them and out of the blue asked if they were dead. This was a hard concept for me to explain to my little boy, but I told him that they were happy and they got to live until they were very old and then went to live with Heavenly Father and Jesus in Heaven when their bodies got sick. I did all I could to explain their deaths and even took out the little books I had made for Gove and Max that included stories about Bunner and Papa. Gove is a little (okay a lot) obsessive and tortured me for the remainder of the week with questions about Bunner and Papa... until Sunday when baptism took over his thoughts. Anyway, after he asked if they were baptized, I asked if he had changed his mind about baptism. Again, my question was met with a no, but he added something new, "I don't want to get sick." Hmmm... I explained that he would not get sick when he was baptized, but honestly the whole conversation was making me nervous and I didn't want to talk about baptism and him getting sick or going somewhere anymore. I calmly told Gove not to worry about being baptized anymore and that when he turned eight, in a LONG time, I hoped he would decide to be baptized, but that he didn't have to be baptized if he didn't want to be. He then asked me why I wanted him to be baptized. I gave him then standard primary answer of, "Because Jesus was baptized and we need to be baptized in order to return to Heaven and live with Jesus forever." He then said, "I don't want to go to Heaven and see Jesus!" That's it! All this talk about Bunner and Papa and going to Heaven and living with Jesus followed by lessons about baptism telling him that if we are baptized we can return to Jesus had made the poor boy think that he would be returning to Jesus in Heaven when he was baptized! What a relief! I explained that you did not go to Heaven after baptism, that I was baptized and was still here and not to worry about seeing Jesus yet. He was satisfied and I was thrilled that all the talk about baptism and Bunner and Papa was finally over. That little boy thinks about things on a much deeper level than I ever realized. When he asks such big questions it is so hard to come up with an answer that a little boy's brain can comprehend. I guess that's why he keeps asking over and over - he is waiting for me to give him an explanation he can understand!