Five Sundays at Sea

Of the six Sundays we were gone, five of them were spent at sea.  Sundays at sea always present a challenge: keeping the Sabbath day holy and worshipping.  Before going, Ken attained permission from our bishop to administer the sacrament for us and Don and Ada.  On that first cruise, we had a different experience on the Sundays than we have ever had before.  Ken wrote about it in his journal:

"Our Sunday worship services on our Sundays at sea were very special.  Although we have cruised approximately 25 different times, and spent about that many Sundays on a cruise ship, we had never had the chance to have an organized church meeting on the ship until this transatlantic crossing.  One of the other members on board that we met early on the cruise received permission from the ship's personel to hold a worship service for members of our church on each of the three Sundays we were on board.  The ship's staff even put a notice of our meeting in the Princess Patter (the daily newspaper on the ship) on each Saturday night.  Another member in attendance said he had gotten permission from his Bishop to perform the sacramental ordinance.  Thus, we had the privilege to partake of the sacrament together two of the three Sundays we were on board together.

Although we were only expecting a handful of church members to show up, the first Sunday we had about 60 in attendance and the other two Sundays our attendance was in the mid 40s.  Each meeting was enjoyable and uplifting.  One Sunday was a fast Sunday and so we had a testimony meeting.  Many wonderful testimonies were borne that day.  The funniest comment made went something like this:  A brother began his testimony by saying that he loved having fast Sunday on a cruise ship because here it was only 10:30am and he had already skipped two full meals.

On the three Sundays that we spent at sea without having an organized group church meeting, Don and Ada (and Melanie and Kevin Cox the second time) joined us for our own little sacrament ordinance meeting.  I had received permission from our Bishop to perform that sacred ordinance while on our trip.  Each of these three experiences was sacred and a very special time spent worshipping together."

Before the first meeting began, I stepped forward and took a picture to document our large crowd.  More actually came after I took the picture.
It was so nice to share the Sabbaths with people of our faith from all over our country.