A Quote From Elder Benjamin Thomas

Friday night was Richard's baptism. It went really well. The assistants came to it. His brother, Anthony, baptized him. Richard is the one on the right in the picture. He was really excited for his baptism. It was awesome.

He gave his testimony after he was baptized and it was really good. It was probably the best testimony that I have heard from one of the people that I baptized. In the middle of it, he was having a hard time talking and he kept touching his chest. I remember in the MTC, someone gave a talk and he said that we would feel joy when we felt the Spirit, but even greater joy when we saw our investigators feel it.

I kind of always wondered how I could tell when they were feeling the Spirit because I feel like I have a hard enough time recognizing it when I feel it, but I definitely knew then that he was feeling the Spirit and it really changed him. And it was true, I definitely felt really happy seeing him like that. I feel like he is one of my best converts because it seems like he has so much potential.

Elder Gordhamer told him that when he was 19 he could become a missionary like us and he actually seemed pretty excited that he could do what we do. We met him a few times after that and he brought it up and said that one day he will be like us. It was pretty awesome.

Last Day At Sea

Glen started the day like he always liked to do by going out on the deck to see what he could see and all he could see was sea. Well, he could also see some birds at sea that were swooping down and snatching fish out of the water.



Pretty soon he got all excited when he noticed that the ship was slowing down and turning around and then he saw another bird--a very big bird, a very big bird made out of metal that turned out to be a Coast Guard helicopter.

There was a medical emergency and a passenger had to be evacuated. Glen captured some great photos of the Coast Guard in action getting a sick passenger off the ship.

After the medical evacuation, they got busy putting up all the railings around the outer edge of the ship--trying to avoid MAN OVERBOARD!! I'm sure.  It appeared then was as good a time as any to have a fire drill.
We enjoyed getting to know the captain at the Captain's Corner that afternoon.  He told us that our medical emergency was a great opportunity for the Coast Guard to "practice" rescuing people.  If I had been the passenger being hoisted up in that skinny, metal basket over all that water, the Coast Guard would have had more "practice" reviving me once I got up to the helicopter.

Our lunch that day was at the Wipeout Cafe!  The reason was it was the place where Glen and Patricia could get a chocolate/vanilla swirl ice scream cone.

The Schooner Lounge was the place for the guys to try their hand at Trivial Pursuit.  Not so much luck until this particular day when we almost had enough winning answers to qualify for a prize. 

Dinner that evening was at a fancy restaurant called Chops Grille.  The food was superb and every plate was so artfully presented.  Fine dining to be sure!

Such a delicious last dinner on the ship.  And here was our last breakfast that we ate before disembarking.

Such great food, such great friends, such a great ship, such a great time.  

Another Day At Sea

And what do we do with ourselves when we have another day at sea? Well, we certainly didn't lack for things to do aboard the ship.

Patricia had a hankering to go ice skating and Glen was a good sport to don some skates and join her on the ice rink. They were not nearly as showy on the ice as the skaters were in the ice skating show that we'd seen during one of our evening entertainment shows (sorry--no photos were allowed), but they tried to do some tricks.

Let's just say they were out there posing for the camera in hopes that people would think they are good ice skaters if anyone looked at our pictures after the trip. Mostly they looked like average people just doing their best to try and stay upright while skating through and around the other skaters.




Steven and I enjoyed being the spectators.


Glen made his climb on the rock wall--all the way to the top and safely back down again.





Steven wanted to see what the flowrider was all about. We had great seats on the bleachers--sometimes seeing more than we wanted to see as a couple of the guys got pantsed. (That's the right word, isn't it--when someone loses his pants--either from getting them pulled down by an obnoxious person, or in this case pulled down by the force of the water when someone got off-balance and got pushed back up to the top of the slide and then tried to stand up?)

Great entertainment--almost akin to seeing the topless women on the beach the other day. And just to clear up any questions on the subject--NO! Steven was NOT one of the guys that lost his britches. He claimed that by wearing a T-shirt, his modesty would be preserved.

Thank goodness he was right!




People gathered in the shopping area to watch the late-afternoon parade. We saw the tall man and not much else because we were off to get ready for our second formal evening.



Our staterooms were on the 14th floor (which could have really freaked out a superstitious person because everyone knows there is never a 13th floor in a hotel..or on a ship...but common sense tells you that just because they change the number of the floor, isn't it still the 13th floor...?)

We loved the elevators because every time we stepped into one, it would tell us the correct day of the week. What a great idea to keep all of the passengers straight.

(Note: It was really Thursday evening when we dressed up again, but the elevator name plate photo was taken the day before, so don't get confused even though the days of the week were there to make sure no one was confused.)



The best part about dinner in the dining room that evening was the dessert. Beautiful presentation and yummy taste!


We walked around the ship and ultimately ended back at Sorrento's for midnight pizza after the usual karaoke show. When you find something that everybody loves, you just gotta keep doing it.



Our room steward showed us love a couple more nights with towel creations. The bunny one we found at the end of our formal evening.

The fluorescent-green luggage tags were a sobering reminder that our cruise was coming to an end. The next evening we were to have our luggage packed and marked with the color-coded tags and put out in the hall before we went to bed so that the stewards could get all the bags hauled away so they would be waiting for us to pick up when we got off the ship back in Ft. Lauderdale.



But, we didn't let those green tags get us down too much. We still had another day at sea.

Quick! Get some sleep so we can get up and play some more!!