Out of Town

Hello from Oregon. I write from my parents’ home in Oregon. We drove here on December 3rd for some family bonding in the realest sense. December 4th my family, aunts, uncles, and cousins, some who I’ve not seen for twelve years, met at the Portland Temple to do vicarious ordinance work for my grandmother, Daphne Elizabeth Dewar Choate, known to her grandchildren and great-grandchildren as Tama, who passed away in May of 2007. We have missed our Tama but she was with us that night in the Temple. It was a holy and memorable evening and I thought I’d never stop crying for joy. I could not imagine feeling more happiness at one time without being consumed. Two days later, however, I discovered I had not yet reached my threshold. Saturday, December 6th, two days after his wife’s Temple work was performed, my 91-year-old grandfather, Forrest Toby Choate, our Boppa, was baptized and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I cannot articulate the beauty and power of those extraordinary and monumental events. I can only thank Heavenly Father for these amazing blessings.