Surprises

We've been in Montreal for more than a week now! There have been a few surprises, but by and large it's been a smooth transition for us. 

Here are a few surprises:

• We knew that the upper floor of the house we're staying in is also an Airbnb, but I hoped that no one would rent it, or that they wouldn't stay for very long. (I guess Montreal has rules requiring long-term stays in Airbnbs when it's not the summer, so that hope was probably impossible.) Anyway, there is someone staying in the upper floor the whole time we're here, and he seems nice. However, I feel bad for how loud we are, and I also feel bad that both of us have to park one right behind the other on the same little driveway. Since he leave early for work on weekdays, it's not a big deal during the day. However, in the evening or on the weekends, we have to coordinate with him when we need him to move his car. Alternatively, we can park on the street, but we have to move the car every two hours or get ticketed. I think he's going to get a street parking pass so we don't have to play this game of do-si-do, which will probably be helpful for all of us.
• The house is the oldest house I've ever lived in, and it is definitely beautiful and charming. I love the old doors and baseboards. However, unfortunately, we suspected there was some lead paint inside the window frames in our bedroom, bathroom, and living rooms, and the lead test we ordered came back positive in those locations. I lived in Michigan when the Flint water scandal occurred, and a few months later we moved to New Haven and got to have lots of conversations with a friend who was trying to get lead abatement to happen in her apartment (which was another giant scandal on its own). So I know a lot about lead and how bad it can be for health and IQ. Hence, I worry about lead dust from the bathroom window (which we have to leave open because there is no fan). And we have to make sure to keep Julia far away from windows. So that is a major downer that we're trying to figure out. (And looking up lead pipes has us also thinking we need a water filter.)
• There are two washers and dryers, which seemed extravagant til the first time I put laundry in the kitchen washing machine. It can fit about two towels! The other one can fit a little more, but overall I fit less laundry in two different washing machines as our one machine back home! So I do a lot of laundry.
• There isn't a whole lot of counter space, but the surprise there has been how I have still been able to cook. I have made chocolate chip cookies, peach cobbler, and applesauce muffins as well as some basic meals. I definitely clean up as I go, which is a good habit even in a larger kitchen.
• There is just one bathroom, and so far it's been okay. Actually, at home, sometimes the kids get upset with each other when one of them runs to the main level bathroom first even though there are a few others to choose from. So I guess we are already used to having one bathroom. It is making me more organized and time-conscious for bathtime, as well.
• Walmart has had some surprises for us. The first happened last Saturday. Kevin got to our new place in the early afternoon, unpacked, and planned to pick me up from the airport and then go to Walmart. However, he discovered that it closes at 5 on Saturdays, so he had to rush there, get there at 4:40, quickly pick a few staple items, and leave at 5. So, we had just enough food to get us through Saturday night and Sunday. The problem was, the stores were closed on Labor Day too, and we definitely didn't have enough food for that. So after church on Sunday, we went back to Walmart. One nice surprise there was just how beautifully dressed the women were. Women from India and Africa were wearing the most gorgeous saris and dresses, with bright colors and gold ornamentation. 
• Of course, Walmart in Canada is going to offer different products. The baguettes are fantastic. The Rave apples taste like apple cider. The strawberries last longer. There have been fewer options for the Great Value brand, so we've had to get more name-brand items than we're used to. And because we don't have any kind of food storage, I feel more aware of just how much food we eat. It's a lot!
• We've also been eating out a lot, partially because it's so easy to walk to get it. The kids really love a boulangerie about a 4 minute walk from our house. They probably like how willing I am to say yes to what they want.
• It's surprising how many places only accept cash. And we have none and no way to get any. Oh well.
• I'm surprised how itchy and red my wasp sting is a week later. I got it at church when we took a group picture outside, and somehow the wasp stung through my dress into my thigh. My kids have gotten a few wasp stings over the years (most memorably, this spring we were at a park during piano lessons and Jacob got stung, and then when I was in the bathroom changing a very dirty diaper, a hailstorm started and the kids ran to the car, abandoning Julia in her stroller to lick the hailstones as they fell on her face), but I've never seen them have this kind of reaction. So I guess I'm allergic now? Good to know I guess.
• There are so many 4 way stops here! I think it's about 3 per Utah block. Overall it seems like bikes and pedestrians matter as much as cars here, which I like and think Utah could use a bit more of. But it does mean it takes 5 minutes to drive one mile. (not that I've driven yet . . . it will probably happen this week.)
• Maybe the most surprising to me is how stoic I have felt about things. I remember moving to Michigan and Connecticut and having at least a few times when my heart sank into my stomach (things like discovering that we had to get our own lamps since there weren't light fixtures or dealing with a grumpy property manager). But maybe having older kids has helped me try to manage my reactions better so that we can all focus on the positives. And maybe managing a smaller house and a smaller life (i.e. no soccer games and practices for 4 different teams and piano lessons and ballet lessons and Irish dance lessons and recitals the same night he had to dress up as Isaac Newton at a school on the other side of town and viola lessons and chamber orchestra practices and concerts and organizing neighborhood kickball and preschool pickup and kindergarten pickup and middle school pickup . . . all of those happened in April and May and it's no wonder I stopped blogging) is a blessing too. As long as we find ways to fill the time with more than just Minecraft. (I do admit it was easier to tell our kids to run outside and play when we had a backyard even though we live close to a great park.)

Anyway, if we all come back to Utah without elevated blood levels, I will count this as a fantastic experience for our family! We're glad to be here!

Migration

One of the most satisfying parts of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" is when the Grinch cleans up the Christmas decorations.

I don't think I felt that way as a kid, but now I love the idea of tidying everything up, from fridges full of food to the tiniest of crumbs.

That was my goal from Wednesday to Friday -- to get the house as clean as the Grinch could. Three of the kids drove with Kevin to Montreal on Wednesday, and while they drove, I cleaned. The kids had daily chores all summer, but items would still migrate to the wrong place and never get put away quite where they belonged.

One of the main culprits of the migration is Julia. Ever since she learned to walk a month ago, she likes to carry objects in each hand from one room to the next. Lately, she likes to pull clothes out of a brother's laundry basket to a different room before lying down and snuggling it on her face. Dominoes, playing cards, balls, CDs, and dirty silverware are also commonly found places they didn't begin.

Of course, I can't blame her for the papers the rest of us get or the lone Legos waiting on random tables to be carefully sorted into the correct bin. The second law of thermodynamics happens with or without a 13-month-old in the house.

But now I felt like I could do something about it. With Joseph (13), Matthew (10), and Luke (3) in the car, Lydia (6) in 1st grade for a few days, and Jacob (8) not making new messes (or hanging out with Julia at my mom's house), I could finally give into my nesting instinct and clean everything! I even swept the garage!

finally got that piano music kind of organized

and finally took care of the books and cards that stack up

After I had cleaned up the great toy migration, it was time to pack for another migration. This packing was easy though -- we were just taking backpacks with stuff to entertain the 4 of us on our flight. The real packing happened at the beginning of the week when we loaded up the minivan with everything we needed for 2.5 months in Montreal. My parents lent us the car top carrier they had first used when they filled it with 5 apple boxes and headed to Southern California for a summer 30 years ago.

This book title was constantly going through my head

Autumn in Montreal requires more clothes than summer in Southern California, so after we stuffed coats and long sleeves into boxes, we couldn't quite fit the rest of our belongings in 5 apple boxes. Luckily, with 4 of us going on a plane, we could fold down several seats and fit it all.

Early Wednesday morning, Kevin, Joseph, Matthew, and Luke headed on their long trek east. Although they could have made it in 3 days, everyone was glad that they spent some time in Ann Arbor visiting Kevin's advisor and rediscovering Gallup Park. 

While they were there, since Ann Arbor was on my mind, I had a spur-of-the-moment idea to see if they could also stop by our old neighbors from Northwood who live east of Toronto, and before I knew it the Warners had generously offered them a place to spend the night and a gorgeous fruit basket. I am so grateful for the lifelong friends we made in student housing!

And then, Saturday morning, about 3.5 hours after I finally got to sleep, it was time to wake up for our flight to Montreal!

One reason I was up so late was that I was gathering things to entertain Julia on the flight. She is a fantastic traveler in the car for about 22.5 minutes, and then it all goes downhill. A few weeks ago, we visited Kevin's mom in Duchesne, which is about 3 hours away from Providence. When we got home from that drive, we looked at each other and began Googling flights in Montreal. I felt bad abandoning Kevin on the long drive himself, but I would have felt worse having the rest of us in the car making things loud and stressful.

Incidentally, Utah went about 130 days without measurable rain and conveniently when Kevin was on I-84 in Ogden Canyon it got 3 inches in like 3 minutes

Jacob and Lydia are old enough that I felt like they would be pretty good travelers on the airplane and good helpers with Julia. So I decided to take those 3 while Kevin took the other 3.

Anyway, back to packing for Julia. I looked up activities that would entertain a 13-month-old. The key seemed to be to have a quantity of activities, just like when you teach a Sunbeam class. So I packed lots of different snacks in different containers, books, things to color, painters tape, and a little trash can we got at a Touch-a-Truck event. It reminded me a little bit of the hospital bag I packed when I had an unmedicated birth a decade ago -- I didn't know what would actually help, so I just brought it all. (No surprise that the bubble wand and solution were totally unnecessary.)

My mom very kindly drove us to the airport at the ungodly hour of 7:20 am Eastern Time (my body resided in Mountain Time but my spirit was on Alaskan Time). Then, after a hug and some cookies from Leslie and Tim who had come to the airport to see us off, it was time for our next great adventure!

When I was about 16, my mom once sent me into the nearby Copy Center to make some copies for her. I stared at the machine. I just stared at it. I could not figure it out for the life of me. About 10 minutes later, I went back to my mom and asked which button I was supposed to press. (Given how mechanically minded I was, I'm as surprised as the rest of you that I went into engineering.)

Anyway, I had that same copy center feeling when I got into the airport. I had only been on a plane twice in the last 7 years, and this international flight was just different enough that I wasn't sure what to do when the kiosks weren't printing boarding passes. But one phone call to my mom later, I had figured out what I needed to do, which was stand in lots of lines. And show 4 passports again and again and again.

Near the end of our wait in the security line

I never went to concourse B when it was .64 miles, but it was still a pretty long walk

Finally, we made it to the very last gate and waited to board. The next 4 hours were an adventure in keeping Julia happy. She really needed a nap. She was not in her normal bed. So she did not nap. 

Instead we read books over and over. We ate snacks. We played with every toy I brought. I said "ready, set" and waited for her to say "gaooo!" to nuzzle her or lift her up. She alternated between increasing crankiness and increasing giggliness. 

I never liked the fumes at the Touch a Truck event, but this garbage can we got there has made it all worth it

Meanwhile, Jacob and Lydia watched plenty of Phineas and Ferb, some of the Minecraft Movie, and some Zootopia, with maybe a Friend magazine or two mixed in. They used the bathroom without saying anything that would lead to a submission to the Reader's Digest (true story. I was 12 and flying without my parents and said something to the flight attendant about how loud the toilet was and 15 months later I read a brief story the flight attendant submitted there). And then, for 15 glorious minutes, this happened:

And then it got bumpy as we descended into Toronto and she woke up. That's okay. The plane landed with a jolt, but some people said it was a smooth landing and started clapping. "They're clapping because it was so much fun!" Lydia said with delight.

When the plane finished taxiing, I gathered up the last bit of trash, expecting to hand it to a flight attendant at the front of the plane. I begged my tired daughter to please hold the plastic cups with napkins and broken Biscoff cookies just for a minute so we could hand it to the nice flight attendant.

Unfortunately, there was no nice flight attendant with a trash bag, so then I asked my son to carry the cup while I set up the stroller and hurried to customs. Surely there would be a trash can somewhere nearby.

Down and down and down more hallways we walked, always hoping for a trash can around the corner. But these corridors were scarce on both trash cans and signage, and I was never quite sure I was in the right place. Then, finally, there was a desk to show our passports again, and underneath it a recycling bin. "There's a trash can just behind it," I told my son, but I think he threw it away in the recycling bin anyway.

For customs, we just went to a kiosk and scanned our passports. I let them know I wasn't bringing anything interesting into the country (not even a plastic cup full of napkins and biscoff crumbs), and after about a minute and a half I had a receipt and headed to the desk.

The man behind the desk counted us. "I see four of you on here," he said quizzically.

"Yes, there's four," I said, pointing to myself, a fussy child, a weeping child (her passport was scanned last), and then realizing there wasn't a fourth person.

"Jacob! It's this desk!" I said, laughing, motioning for him to come back over to be counted. He let us through, and just like that we were in Canada! Much easier for us than for Kevin.

On this side of customs, the amount of signs and trash cans were back to normal airport levels, and we maneuvered ourselves onto various elevators and down crowded hallways to our gate. We picked up some Tim Hortons food to get a proper Canadian welcome, and before long, we were set to board the second plane!

This time, the screens didn't have any movies, but the kids were content to look out the window and eat airplane snacks for the hour or so we were on this flight. Julia needed a little more entertainment than that, so I pulled out the next trick in my Mary Poppins bag.

I gave her the toy trash can to put the painters tape strands in, but she mostly liked dropping them in the aisle or sticking them in her mouth.

We landed, found the stroller, found the exit, and before too long, we found our minivan too! And then a little while later, we found our new house!

Our great migration was now complete, and it was great to be reunited with all of our baby birds.

Hiiiiiiiiii

You know the story about the angel who wanted to make the dinosaurs meatier and so another angel made them a meteor and that's why they went extinct?

I keep thinking of that joke. One reason is that I told it to my 11-year-old and he laughed and laughed and I don't know that I've ever had a joke received that well.

The other reason is that we have some birthdays this week and one of them wants a meteor cake. Maybe we'll make mincemeat pie and put some frosting on it and see if he likes his meteor cake.

Just kidding. I'm almost certain we'll do chocolate.

Anyway, it's been a while. And after this post it will probably be a while again.

I just wanted to let you know that I do still blog sometimes. I have a "deep thoughts" blog that also includes some posts from Facebook that are also deep thoughts as well as the limericks I started writing during the pandemic. That blog can be found here: https://www.kyramoon.net/ or kyramoonwrites.blogspot.com if the connection times out for the other one.

I also started a Substack for New Testament posts. Kyramoon.substack.com or something like that.

I also have a blog which is usually private and rarely updated.

I also have an Instagram page which is mostly pictures of my kids. It's kyramoon2 or something like that. I don't usually accept friend requests but you can always try.

And an Instagram page for music which I never update.

And a daily journal which is very boring except that it has my kids' funny quotes in it but unfortunately it's too boring to ever reread to find the quotes again.

Anyway, if you like to read, you're welcome to read that blog at kyramoon.net.

Hope you're doing well! 

New Year, New Blog!

Eight and a half years ago, I started this blog on a whim. I didn't know what I was going to blog about, but I knew that as a newlywed I was probably supposed to have a blog.

Since then, I've amassed about 600 blog posts. Some of them could be edited for length and clarity, but I'm still really happy with what I've produced.

The past several months, though, I've been thinking a lot about the direction I want not just for this blog but for social media in general. Here are some of my conclusions:

1. I would like to share personal information on Facebook since it's such an easy place to share news with a large but select audience, but I have been getting more and more bothered by the company itself. So, I've been doing a bit of a boycott there. I still share pictures on Instagram, but I've been holding back on any kind of new information.

2. Google isn't a great company for privacy either, but since I still have to use the Internet I accept that Google will probably always know a lot about me, even just from my emails. For now I'll live with that.

3. Since we are planning to stay in the same house for a long time, I'd like to do as much as possible to up my privacy on the internet. The local news isn't always encouraging on the creeper front, unfortunately.

Soooooooooooooooooooooo,

I started a new blog. A private one. The kind that you have to physically check rather than just scroll through on your blog feed app.

It's not my ideal, but I think it's what is right for our family moving forward.

I know that not too many people read this blog, but I also know that I don't know everybody who reads this. And for the most part, that's fine. I mean, I check various websites without participating in the community, so I have no disdain for lurkers. But I'm at the point where I don't want my life or my kids' lives to be lurked at. So sending out blog invitations it must be. (Comment if you want one! I've already posted on the new blog!)

I might still post here some, but I wouldn't count on it. I've still got plans to work on music websites, and those will be public, but I don't know when that will be.

So, I guess it's goodbye for now?

It's been really, really fun.

Time flies when you're having fun

Today Kevin and I commemorated a very important occasion -- it's our meet-iversary! 10 years ago we met and didn't think much of the encounter. This just goes to show why it's okay to be wrong sometimes.

In honor of this special day, I wanted to share the first picture that was taken of us together. Unfortunately, it no longer can be found on Facebook (another friend shared it and deleted the album later), but at least I can share the second picture taken of us together:

Here we are, just lost somewhere in Provo Canyon with my dad and friends and siblings. We thought we were going to hike Mount Timpanogos that day but a couple of misleading signs led us nowhere so we spent the time traipsing around on deer trails until we found our way back to the trail (about a half mile from the trailhead and it was 1 in the afternoon). There ain't no hike like a Moon hike, he learned that day and has relearned a couple times since.

Speaking of things from 10 years ago, Facebook reminded me that on January 10, 2009, I went sledding with my ward and looked really cool doing it:

I'm glad that I was not hurt so that 3 days later I could meet Kevin.

While I'm at it, since everybody is doing it, here's the first profile picture I put on Facebook in 2007:

This picture was taking the day of my high school graduation. I had just gotten back from hair salon where they whacked off about 16 inches (I only asked for 12) of my hair. So the ends look kind of blunt.

And here's my most recent picture:

I think I look older but I could still pass for a high schooler if I had to. I at least look older than the 6th graders at Joseph's school.

This picture of Jacob reminds me of two more pictures that I happened to share on two different January 13ths two years apart:

This is literally my favorite picture in the world

I thought it might be fun to do a redo picture now that we have a Jacob instead of a placeholder, but I couldn't get Matthew to put on the blue shirt Joseph was wearing and then I forgot about it so it never happened. Oh well. I feel like winter is just not a great time to take pictures of kids anyway. Between hardly taking any pictures of my kids (well, by my standards) and not writing in my journal since sometime in December (or even blogging about life) I feel like I'm living an undocumented life. Someday historians will just have to look through gchats, texts, and credit card purchases to figure out what we did each day.

But back to the original point. How, you might ask, did we spend our super important meet-iversary?

We got our kids dressed for church. With my parents' help, we wrestled with our kids (mostly Jacob) during Sacrament Meeting. We played with our kids.

And of course, we went on a date. We spent last night painting our 7th-11th paint samples, and then today we went to our house to see how they looked there. 

some contenders

If you have to watch paint dry or look at undertones of paint on drywall, it's always nice to do it with the person you are happy to spend your meet-iversary with. 

Time flies when you're having fun.

Good Ideas Belong to Everyone

"Sister Elaine Jack said with a smile, “You know, Elder Ballard, the [women] of the Church may have some good suggestions … if they [are] asked. After all, … we are their mothers!" - Neil L. Andersen, "Power in the Priesthood"

I never wanted to write a letter to an apostle until I was called into a Primary Presidency.

My concerns were primarily logistical, and they stayed at the ward and stake level. "We can't do Cub Scouts in this ward! There are so many language barriers that make it hard to get normal paperwork filled out! Even getting everyone to give me their rechartering certificate was almost impossible with all the computer issues people faced week after week! Can't we just do Activity Days for Boys? They would still get to do fun stuff, only we wouldn't have to buy them patches and pins!"

As it turned out, repeating that mantra multiple times over multiple months to leadership was sufficient, and the ward switched to Activity Days. To be honest, I felt a little guilty that I had brought it up so much since I was throwing in the towel after only one recharter and Blue and Gold banquet, but I felt a little validated a few months later when the Church announced it would formally withdraw from the Scouting program in 2020.

You could argue I had been a few months ahead of the prophet and therefore was in the wrong. But regardless, it was still a good idea.

That wasn't the thing I wanted to write a letter about, though. The main thing was just how difficult it was to staff a ward like the one I was currently in. I knew my time in it was short, and I knew that it really was fairly functional considering everything it was up against. But as I thought about it, I realized most wards outside of the US or certain parts of Latin America (and plenty within those areas) were likely facing the same challenges we did (transportation, kids who wanted to come but their parents didn't, multiple languages, burdens on young families). Did they know about these challenges?

As it turned out, they did. And the very next conference, President Nelson freed up all of the High Priest Group leadership so they could help out with callings such as Primary! I again felt so grateful for their inspiration.

***

There's a phrase people say, "Prophets are fallible, but no one believes it." I don't think that's accurate -- I think most members really don't mind that prophets are human too. What people like less is the idea of them needing input from lay members.

I mean, surely if Joseph Smith could translate the Book of Mormon without any prior knowledge of ancient languages, then modern leaders could determine which missions to open and which ones to close without looking at data, right? Surely God can lay out clear visions of how to write manuals or design temples.

And yet . . . there are divisions in the Church Office Building devoted to data mining and statistical analysis of all those numbers missionaries track. There are correlation committees and temple contractors and all sorts of jobs that seem rather, well, mundane.

So, okay, fine, but that doesn't mean they really want or need lay members to share their opinions, right? They would never put out surveys, right?

They do that too.

I absolutely believe that revelation can come in bursts of light straight from heaven, but I think most of the details to implement those revelation come in less dramatic ways. Those details include stake executive secretaries who suddenly have three times as many interviews to schedule. They include committees called to sing each hymn that's submitted. They include a lot more surveys and statistics than we like to romanticize.

A friend of mine recently had a song come straight into her heart that she asked me to help transcribe and write accompaniment for. The song was absolutely a revelation. My part, though, was to use the gifts of God that had already been given to me to write it down. I spent hours tapping my leg to figure out the syncopation and time signature changes. I used my perfect pitch to figure out the notes without too much help from the piano. I input the notes using computer software on a laptop with an external monitor on the other side of the piano due to a broken laptop screen. It was tedious. (I think I'll charge $200 an hour to do this from now on.) But the fact that my part was tedious didn't mean that her part wasn't inspired. That's just how revelation works sometimes.

And any amount of mundane, human, tedious input doesn't mean it's not inspired. It's still a good idea.

***

In April 2013, Jean Stevens was the first woman to offer a prayer in General Conference. Prior to her prayer, several women had sent letters to the First Presidency asking that this change be made.

And it was.

But the Church had already been planning to do it. Six months earlier they had lowered the mission age, and they had several other changes in the works. It was just a coincidence that the letters had coincided with the pre-planned change.

So, were those women wrong in writing those letters? Were they out of line, steadying the ark, exhibiting no faith in the prophet?

That's between them and God to decide. I will say I do know people who don't like to stir things up who were nonetheless led by the Spirit recently to write letters to the First Presidency about similar concerns. And their concerns were addressed.

Perhaps we worry too much about where an idea comes from or when an idea comes when the real question is, "Is it a good idea?"

And, as it turns out, feminists have good ideas. Prophets have good ideas. People of any race, nationality, sex, age, educational attainment, or marital status can have good ideas.

And I don't think we need to be scared or defensive when someone outside of our "group" has a good idea, even if it's shared more forcefully than we approve. Instead, I think we should evaluate the idea based purely on its own merits. And if it really is a good idea, then the primary feeling we ought to have is gratitude. We ought to have gratitude that Heavenly Father can communicate good ideas to any of His children. We ought to have gratitude that we are part of a church where we know firsthand that God speaks! We ought to have gratitude that it is an organized church that can handle good ideas coming from anyone -- regardless of the original source, there will be an organized pattern for the good idea to make its way to all of the members, and we all can have witnesses of its truth.

As Joseph Smith said,

People acting together are the foundation of the authority of the church. “I informed the people [that in] the government of the church, in business transactions, every man should have a voice in the matter as if the whole responsibility were on his shoulders.

-Joseph Smith, JD 3.89 (as quoted in Brother Brigham Challenges the Saints)

 And, like we learn from Joseph F. Smith, we ought to have gratitude for our Savior. In Section 138 of the Doctrine and Covenants, he tells his story:

 2 And reflecting upon the great atoning sacrifice that was made by the Son of God, for the redemption of the world;
3 And the great and wonderful love made manifest by the Father and the Son in the coming of the Redeemer into the world;
4 That through his atonement, and by obedience to the principles of the gospel, mankind might be saved.

He reads some scriptures, and what happens next?

11 . . . the eyes of my understanding were opened, and the Spirit of the Lord rested upon me, and I saw the hosts of the dead, both small and great. 

He saw one of the most magnificent visions ever! He learned so much about what happens after we die, and it gave so much hope to people exhausted by war and influenza.

If we look on good ideas with gratitude and charity rather than derision or judgment due to their original source, then I think we will see and learn even more magnificent things.

And it will be wonderful.

Word made flesh

I was recently thinking about how much my religion is often as much about the tangible as it is the spiritual.

For example, religion asks that we not only have a broken heart and a contrite spirit. It also asks us to take bread and water each week.

It asks us not only to follow Jesus and keep His commandments but to put on a jumpsuit and walk into a font of water to get baptized.

It asks us not only to obey God's commandments and live the gospel of Jesus Christ but to make tangible covenants that show we really mean it.

It even asks not only for people who have died to accept Jesus Christ but to be baptized by proxy by living people in jumpsuits and fonts holding little slips of paper they printed out that morning.

It's as if religion says, "It's not enough for your heart to be in it. Your body has to be in it too."

I used to wonder about what there was about the nature of the water or the words that provided the transformative effect to cleanse us or endow us with power beyond what the Holy Ghost accomplished spiritually. But now after having three kids with very literal needs, I don't care that much about the metaphysical or symbolic. Maybe we'll find out someday that most of the tangible things we did were important only symbolically to keep our minds on the right track. Maybe we'll find out it was all literal. Maybe the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

But I still think there's something to the idea that our body has to be in it just as much as our heart. I think of what Jesus Christ taught about baptism both in the New Testament and in modern scripture. I think about an entire Plan of Salvation that depended on us getting mortal, fragile bodies. And tonight, I think about a little baby born in to tired parents in a tired, confused nation. And I am grateful for his literal, tangible life.

11  And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people.

12 And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities.

13 Now the Spirit knoweth all things; nevertheless the Son of God suffereth according to the flesh that he might take upon him the sins of his people, that he might blot out their transgressions according to the power of his deliverance.