Above are some of our favorite Phil & Phil pics. Our son Philip is named after his Uncle Phil, Tom's brother. (Their middle names are the only difference.) We still occasionally use the nickname "Philby" to differentiate between them--it's short for "Phil the Baby," while his uncle gets the designation "Phil the Man."
Two weeks ago Uncle Phil was put in as our new stake president. In the LDS faith, a bishop presides over a congregation; a stake is a group of congregations (our stake has 7). A stake president is in charge of the whole stake, and is in that position for roughly ten years. So it's kind of a big deal. (I might mention that in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the clergy are not paid, so they all have regular jobs in addition to their church positions, which they do not "sign up" for but are rather invited to accept.)
Here are some questions people will ask you if you happen to be related to the new stake president:
How do you feel about being related to the stake president? (We feel great. He's a terrific person so we can easily give him our support.)
How are you guys related to the stake president again? (He is Tom's OLDER brother. And to answer the inevitable follow-up question, Tom is 14 years younger. And to answer your next follow-up question, no there are two brothers older than that and only one sister between them. Yes, Tom was a "bonus baby.")
Did you know they were going to put him in as the new stake president? (While we had a hunch, not even he knew until the day before, because that's how it works. We heard his name read for the first time at stake conference like everyone else. But we figured it out that morning when our sister-in-law called to ask when we'd be arriving at church so that we could sit with them. I told her we'd do our best to get there early and she said, "Okay, we'll see you when you get here." Get here? You're already at the church at 7:40 a.m. and the meeting starts at 9? Hmmm....)
Your kid is named after the stake president, right? (This one only applies to people who happen to name their kid after the future stake president...)
As we left the meeting where we all voted to sustain the new stake president, his namesake had ballpoint pen all over his face and back. That would be our son's actual back, not his white shirt. I still don't know how I missed that this was happening. On our way out it was mentioned once that he looked like Zorro (so when we got home he wanted to know who Zorro was and he decided that he was Zorro for the rest of the week) and several times that he is named after our new church leader. All I can do is smile and explain that our rather imaginative, rambunctious, humorous child is quite a bit like his uncle was as a kid. That must mean there's hope that he will turn out pretty well.
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