Baptism

I went to the church for Chip's baptism today. I actually had fun! Zoh my gosh!

The program itself wasn't remarkably out of the ordinary. The only thing different about it, I guess, was the baptismal font was in a corner, so there wasn't enough room for everyone to get a good view. Also, no one could really tell if Chip went all the way under the water the first time, so they had to do it again and there was a surprising amount of joking and laughing about it. I guess church doesn't have to be stupidly solemn all the time. Yay!

The stake president was there too. I don't recall having met him, though I think I saw him once at a stake conference at the very beginning of last summer. Today, I wasn't terribly impressed with him. Is it wrong to disagree with something a stake president says in a talk? Because I disagreed with two of the things he said.... One was that the Word of Wisdom (no coffee, tea, alcohol, tobacco, or harmful drugs) has absolutely nothing to do with your health and that it's purely a spiritual commandment. The other was that it's impossible for anyone to get to heaven without the knowledge of the gospel. Is it really someone's fault if they haven't heard of this church? Or if they've prayed to find out whether it's true and haven't gotten an answer (or at least a recognizable one)? Or if... well, a million other scenarios. Actually, I also disagreed with him when he said that Satan was going to try harder than ever right around now to turn him away from the church. Personally, I think if Satan were smart, he would wait a few years for the novelty to wear off, because that's when people are more likely to fall away. By then, they're mostly just going through the motions. Of course, I guess it depends on the person.... But whatever, I'll spare you the religious debate for now.

I ended up playing not only the duet with Elder Darby, but also another song for the elders to sing along with (I Know That My Redeemer Lives) as well as another solo piece as an interlude while Chip and Brother Whatshisname put on dry clothes. Also, Elder Darby said he wasn't really comfortable playing the opening and closing songs, so I ended up playing them too.

And of course, after the program, practically everyone there at some point or other drifted my way to tell me just how wonderful I am at playing piano and how grateful they were that I could be there. One of my students said, "If I practice a lot, will I be able to play like that someday?" Brother Someone asked if I could beg my boss for just two Sundays off a month, at least from ten to eleven so I could come in and play piano for sacrament meeting. Sister DeLand asked me if I would be willing to take on yet another piano student because she wanted me to teach her daughter Cassidy. The stake president, Brother Ellis, I think was his name, actually put his arm around my shoulder and told me the ward was blessed to have me and not to worry, that God was preparing a husband for me very soon, but that said husband wasn't ready for me yet. Hahahahahaha, good to know. Phew. I was real worried about that. Man, I can sleep easy now.

The best part was after the adults finished fawning over me (nice as it is to have an ego boost, sometimes it makes me uncomfortable) and we went into the gym for refreshments. Believe it or not, it wasn't the food that was my favorite part (the food was mostly raw vegetables... and though I love cooked vegetables, I don't much like them raw, dip or not).

Madison (age 6) picked up a flat basketball and we started playing catch. Then Cassidy (about age 8) joined us. Then a little girl I don't know, probably two-ish years old, joined too. I would toss the ball gently to her, and she would catch it, giggle like made, and fling it in Cassidy's general direction. Cassidy would throw it to Madison, who would catch it and throw it towards me, but try and throw it as high as she could to make it hard for me to catch. I made the game more fun by getting on my knees so I couldn't move around or jump to get it.

As the adults trickled out, more kids joined us. After twenty minutes or so, there were seven kids and maybe four adults in the gym, and everyone wanted to play a different game. At one point, I was playing Monkey in the Middle with two of the older kids, catch with the littlest one, and kickball with Noah. I turned my head to say good-bye to Jason and caught a basketball with the side of my face. Blah, that's what I get for trying to play three games at once and still try to talk to people about my age at the same time. "About my age," what am I talking about? Jason's like thirty! I guess he seems younger because he's single.

Anyway, I made the mistake of picking up Cassidy by the arms and swinging her around a few times, and suddenly Kamryn and Sequoia and Noah were all surrounding me, holding up their arms and yelling, "Do it to me! My turn!" Kamryn and I started barking at each other and then we wrestled (everyone against Lint Monkey and I still won! Strut strut strut). Noah stole my flashlight when the oldest boy (probably about ten) started turning off the lights and chasing the girls in the dark.

Anyway, to make a long story short, I was one of the last people to leave, and by the time I did, I was tired and sweaty, but I had so much fun! And it was really nice that everyone played together and didn't fight. So I ended up being glad that I forgot to dress up for it.... I was still in my work shirt, hiking boots, and bleach-stained jeans, and the best I could do was take off my hat while I was in the chapel. But I was ridiculously glad that I wasn't wearing a skirt when I was playing with the kids. It all worked out.