Metlakatla Baptism

In church it was announced that there would be a baptism in Metlakatla the following Saturday.

In Relief Society they announced that members with boats were going to try to take people.

And to contact the bishop if you wanted to go.

In Elder's Quorum it was announced that boats were needed.

And to contact the bishop if you could take people...

The differing versions made me laugh.

It sounded like a great opportunity.

And I meant to follow up on it.

But we never did.

On Friday night two of the Elder's came for a visit.

We had a great time with them.

Their visit reminded me of the baptism the following day.

It was after 9:00 in the evening when Andrew sent the bishop an e-mail.

Would it be possible for us to catch a ride on a boat?

E-mails went back and forth a couple of times.

It was after midnight before we had all the details.

And after a couple of days where I had gotten behind on my sleep,

We needed to decide:

Was it going to be worth it to get the boys up and be at the boat by 8:00 AM?

It was one of those things that I knew would be a great experience.

But it sounded so terrible to have to wake up that early.
(Remember it was already after midnight.)

Not only that, but we needed to pack lunches,

Try to make a dessert for after the baptism,

Dress in church clothes,

Have warm clothes for traveling on the boat because it gets colder down on the water,

Bring things to stay entertained because there will be down time before and after the baptism.

etc, etc, etc.

Yikes!

Lots of things I hadn't even considered!

We went to bed having made the decision to go.

We had originally planned to take Peter to a drop in soccer game in the morning,

But I assumed he would be happily surprised with a boat ride instead.

Around 2:00 AM I woke up and realized Ammon's light was one.

He was reading.

Just couldn't sleep, he said.

I told him to go to bed - that we had an early morning.

I woke up a little bit later to see that Ammon's light was on again.

I explained a little more firmly that we had an awesome day planned.

But that he needed to get some sleep if he wanted to go!

Morning came all too soon.

As usual, Andrew was out of bed well before me.

I heard Peter wake up and a few minutes later Andrew came back into our room.

Peter was NOT as OK with the change of plans as we had hoped.

In fact, he was pretty darn mad about it.

By this time I was losing my nerve.

I had no idea how big (or not big) the boat was.

I had no idea how far into the ocean we would be.

A couple of years ago we took a boat out in Bear Lake.

Open water is one of my secret fears.

It freaks me out to consider the creatures in the water.

The idea of me ending up in the water with them is traumatizing to me.

And that is just with lakes and rivers.

Now we are talking about huge, never-ending bodies of water - 

With whales and sharks and who knows what else.

And it is early in the morning... and cold...

And maybe Peter just wants to play soccer and we should do that since we told him we would...

But after a little while Peter got on board with the boating thing.

I came out into the living room where Andrew was working on packing our lunches.

"Does it smell like chocolate chip cookies to you?" I asked.

"Oh, those are the brownies I made for the baptism," he replied.

Ammon was still sleeping.

Another out for me.

"You and Peter should definitely go, but maybe I need to stay home with Ammon."

Andrew wasn't a fan of that idea.

He had is own list of reasons why maybe we didn't want to go.

(Like, did he really want to spend his entire day off at a baptism?)

He wasn't really thrilled with me ditching him and "making" him go if I wasn't going to.

The morning was back and forth like this.

And all the while I was praying that if I did go, I wouldn't be completely terrified the entire time.

We decided it was time to wake Ammon up to get him ready.

He didn't get up.

We tried again.

And again.

A few times...

Finally he got up.

And after all the back and forth, we eventually determined that we would all go.

Rather than meeting at the bishop's house at 8:00,

We met at the dock at 8:30.

That bought us just enough extra time to get out the door.

I had NO idea about what to expect from the boat.

The bishop had mentioned that it could be cold, so I pictured it being pretty open.

I couldn't guess about the size.

But I was imagining something bigger than what it was.

The boat had enclosed seats - that made me happy.

It looked like it was meant to seat about six people.

We had TEN - five kids and five adults.

Yikes.

Our family of four really burdened the group.

Being the lone woman, and pregnant to boot, I was given shotgun.

That got me out of the crowded masses in the back.

Although I still rode with Peter on my lap.

But we all got in, and enjoyed the experience.

It was still before 9:00 when we left.

The sun was creeping out over the ocean and the view was amazing!

Rather than being terrified, I just loved the ride.

Well, until Andrew and Ammon started asking about the likelihood of seeing whales.

Apparently that was a pretty common occurrence.

I just tried to tune out the conversation and "go to my happy place".

I assume I'll get over it with some experience,

But for now I still have anxiety about a whale coming up under the boat and knocking us over.

Or jumping up out of the water and landing on the boat!

I really don't need to see a whale unless I am viewing it from land!

And maybe I spoiled it for everyone else.

Because I continued to feel safe for the entire boat ride - a definite answer to prayers.

 And we never did spot a whale.

I am adjusting to the beauty of Ketchikan,

Although there are still moments when the beauty of the ocean takes my breath away.

Metlakatla was it's own kind of beautiful.

I expected it to be more of the same.

Instead it was a more rural and country feeling beauty.

There were animals out and more open field looking areas than what I've seen in Ketchikan.

The Elders from this area met us at the dock.

The were going to take as many people in their car as they could.

The rest needed to walk to the church.

Three of the kids piled in.

The missionaries mentioned that they needed an adult.

The bishop tried to send me.

We all pointed out that I couldn't go - the missionaries needed a male adult with them.

So the bishop send Andrew.

Away the car went.

And then the bishop realized that the two kids NOT in the car were mine.

Ooops.

He apologized for sending Andrew with the OTHER kids and leaving me "alone" with mine.

But it was no big deal.

The boys had fun walking.

They were riled up and full of energy.

It had been a fun ride on the boat, and now they were exploring a new island.

At one point the bishop asked if I wanted to stop and wait for the missionaries to come back.

I declined that opportunity, but they came back soon after that and picked up the boys and me.

While we had been impressed that this little remote island even had a church building.

We were also "impressed" with how quaint it was.

There are no hallways in the building except for one that separate the bathrooms from the font.

Other than that, the church is basically a small cultural hall with a few classrooms around the perimeter.

And a relief society room.

Andrew got a kick out of that - even in the tiny church, the women got their own room.

Actually, for how small it was, the church was impressive with what it had:

a kitchen, a custodial closet, a library, and four classrooms.

Of course, one of the classrooms was being used as a bedroom for the missionaries.

They are Ketchikan missionaries, but their area spills over to Metlakatla.

They generally go over a couple of times a month.

When they do, they stay for several days - and they need a place to stay.

They hook a hose up to the font to use as a shower.

We had a few hours before the baptism was scheduled to start.

Peter asked me to play Skip Bo with him.

Ammon was looking for a partner for Phase 10.

About that time, the people getting baptized arrived.

It was a mother, her 15 year old step-son, and her 9 year old daughter.

The husband had been baptized a few months earlier.

The 9 year old was happy to play with Ammon.

She wasn't super familiar with the game so one of the Elders helped her out.

The mother and step-son were being taught about priesthood, home teaching etc.

Andrew joined that conversation which included the other men we had come with - the bishopric.

The baptism itself had a really good turn out.

A lot of family members came to support Janis and her family.

We also had a second boatload of people from Ketchikan, and a few members from Metlakatla.

Metlakatla is part of our ward.

In January of this year they had 4 people attending meetings there.

(They join our Sacrament Meeting via Skype and then hold their own Sunday School lessons.)

They are currently up to 14 people who regularly attend!

There was more down time after the baptism.

The bishop and stake president needed to take care of some business.

But they wanted to be sure to be off the ocean before dark.

Pretty soon time had run out and even though they wanted to do more visits, we needed to head back.

It was just as pretty heading back, as it had been that morning.

In some ways it was even more beautiful - we passed an amazing rainbow!

This time both of my kids wanted to sit on my lap in the "front".

The bishop offered to let Peter sit on the floor between the two front seats.

Ammon took my lap.

It worked out well for Peter that he was the closest to the driver.

The bishop decided to go to the back of the boat to get himself a soda.

He asked Peter to "drive" while he was up.

And wouldn't you know - it was the ONLY time during the whole trip that we noticed other boats.

Of course it looked like Peter was going to crash right into them.

Andrew and I, not being at all familiar with the speed of boats were fairly nervous.

And the bishop, knowing everything was fine just took his own sweet time.

Even after the bishop took the wheel again, I really wondered if he was paying attention.

We were getting closer and Closer and CLOSER.

And it just looked like we would crash.

He never changed course.

And we missed the other boats "by a mile".

After that I noticed that he was heading straight into a wall of rocks.

I was confused, but at least learned to trust him.

At least I thought I did...

It took me a few minutes of wondering when he would turn away from the rocks.

And then I noticed an opening in the rocks.

We were already back to Ketchikan.

He was going into the little place the boats dock from.

Before we knew it, we were back on dry land.

The kids were eager to explore the dock while the adults got things ready to pull the boat out of the water.

Andrew and I just stood around, not good for much...

Well, at least I took some pictures...

Overall, it had been a FABULOUS day!

We felt so lucky to have been able to go.

And so glad that we went through with it despite all the chances and excuses not to.

And though we really felt like we hit a jackpot experience just with the boat ride etc,

We are also so happy to have met the Faber family.

They had some medical concerns that needed to be addressed immediately following the baptism.

They took the ferry to Ketchikan and stayed the night after visiting the ER,

So we were able to see them in church today.

They had originally thought Brother Faber had had a stroke.

"Fortunately" it turned out to be Bells Palsy.

It was fun to see "friends" at church today.

I was able to sit with Janice in Relief Society.

In Metlakatla, they don't do the third hour, so it was fun to see her experience that.

After church her husband went to rest at a members home where they stayed last night.

But I offered to help her run errands,

(Picking up prescriptions for her husband and buying pants for her daughter,)

So she stayed with us and was able to be there when Andrew was set apart for his calling.

I told Andrew I had offered to take Janice on her errands

(Even though it was Sunday.)

He just said, "At least you aren't taking her to buy alcohol."

(Yup - I did that once as the Relief Society President.)

(It was a controversial issue between us at the time, but he later saw the wisdom in it.)

It really was an amazing weekend.

I just can't believe I didn't think to get pictures of the Faber family on their baptism day!

I don't think the missionaries even took pictures.

But that loss aside, everything was wonderful!