Baptisms

Maile Pualani Chock was baptized at the Provo Sunset Stake Center on Saturday, November 1, 2008 by her father, Thomas.



'Twas a good service, only 4 other children were baptized that day, so even though we went last, it wasn't too long of a wait.

Some of my impressions:

Becca gave a great talk on the Holy Ghost. I really liked how she taught us the difference between the Power of the Holy Ghost and the Gift of the Holy Ghost. I told her she better be careful, she looked a bit too comfortable sitting up on the stand with the Stake Primary Presidency...

It was wonderful to see the Hamiltons there, we haven't seen them in a LONG time. Clark Hamilton and James Chock are a pair, I'd feel sorry for any nursery leader that had them BOTH. Seth is a MONSTER. He's got not only the height, but now he's getting THICK. Get that boy playing football!

Maile is still taller than most kids her age. Becca thinks she'll stop growing, I hope to have a 6'2" volleyball player someday...

I liked that there were musical numbers between every group being excused to the font.

We tried to take a picture of everyone who came for Maile's baptism, but our camera didn't take the picture. Go figure. Shoulda had Rich bring his camera for that. Oh well.

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Later that afternoon, we got to go to another baptism, this time it was our friends Justus and Katrina Lawrence baptizing their son, Te. Isaac, Maile and I take karate from Justus, and Te is in many of the classes Maile and Isaac are in.

Funny thing was that the night before, I had taken Isaac and Maile trick-or-treating, and since we were in the car, decided to stop by the Lawrences for a good spook (Katrina has great Halloween decorations). Somehow we got talking about Maile's baptism, at which point we found out Te was getting baptized the next day. Katrina then smacked her forehead exclaiming she had forgotten to ask someone to play music.

Luckily for them, I have a wife who can pretty much sight read anything.

So, I volunteered Rebecca in exchange for the chance to have Filipino food. I don't know what Rebecca thought, but I thought it was totally worth it. Yum.

Impressions:

The Lawrences are DEFINITELY a karate family.

Miki's talk on baptism started basically the same way the Black Belt Success Cycle starts. Isaac commented on Miki's eyes, and I asked him if he didn't remember those eyes from karate (we took from Miki for a while).

I've never heard the words "black belt" uttered in a confirmation prayer before. But it wouldn't fit so well anywhere else, either.

It wouldn't be Justus if he didn't tell the kids sitting in the front row to "look sharp" right before raising his right arm to the square.

All in all, a great Saturday.