Scrapbooks - College - Sophomore Year - Chris' Baptism

So here's the thing you may or may not know at this point - Chris was not a member of the church! Everyone thought he was, he totally acted like he was. All through high school he attended mutual activities and seminary. He went to BYU for Pete's sake. But nope. His parents were (are?) not big fans of the church; I still have no idea why. And here's the weird thing: Chris was born in UT. (In fact, now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure he was born in LDS Hospital, where Spencer was born! Small, small world...) His parents lived in Salt Lake for a while because his dad was big into ski jumping up in Park City. I know. I KNOW. So obviously something happened while they were in Salt Lake that made them not very big fans of the church. And then they moved to CA, probably thinking they were all done with those crazy Mormons, and then what crowd should their only son fall into? Hah.

Anyways.....

So Chris was technically old enough to get baptized without his parent's permission the year before, but I'm not sure why he didn't. No really, I asked. A lot. Still don't know. I think he was secretly hoping his parents would come around. I also think he still had some questions. Who knows?

AND, get this... who should baptize my high school/college boy friend? None other than MY FUTURE HUSBAND, (then) Elder Lance Madsen. I know. I KNOW. It's a strange, weird life. (Chris and Lance were good friends in high school.)

I only remember a little of the actual baptism. I know a lot of people were there - not many baptisms happen at BYU!

I do remember sitting in Chris' car after the baptism. We just sat there, kind of stunned that something we had talked about for so long had just happened. We were both kind of giddy and happy, but also awkward. I remember thinking something along the lines of "Okay, life just got really REAL all of a sudden."

Chris was active in the church through college, but I heard he went inactive a few years after graduation. I'm pretty sure he's not active now. This makes me really sad and makes me question the reason why he got baptized in the first place. I hope he did because he had a testimony and knew it was the right thing to do. I really don't want it to be because of me or because all his friends kept bugging him about it. (I know, that sounds so very conceited, but I can't help it. It's something that nagged at me for a long time.)

So even though this was a really happy day, I think of it kind of sadly.