Bowen Baptism

I am so proud of Bowen for choosing to get baptized. We had a good day and everything went smooth. I was afraid that someone in the family would be sick since we had sick family members all week, but everyone was well. We were going to have a get together after the baptism but decided not to because of the sickness.
Since many of our friends and family were not able to come I thought I would share with you the talk I gave on baptism.>

There a few questions that I want to ask about baptism.

Why are we baptized? commandment

How are we baptized? By immersion

When are we baptized? When we are 8 or older

By what authority are we baptized? The priesthood

Why

2 Nephi 9:23 And he commandeth all men that they must repent and be baptized in his name, having perfect faith in the Holy One of Israel, or they cannot be saved in the kingdom of God.

When Jesus was alive on the earth he went to John the Baptist to be baptized in the Jordan River. John knew that Jesus was without sin, and so he was surprised when Jesus asked to be baptized. John knew that Jesus had never sinned, so he didn’t think Jesus would need to be baptized. But Jesus told John that being baptized was a commandment from Heavenly Father, and he wanted to obey all of Heavenly Father’s commandments.

When we are baptized we make covenants (promises) with Heavenly Father. We promise to obey his commandments, forgive others, and follow Jesus Christ. In return, he accepts us into the Church and promises to guide and help us.

How

By immersion. It is to represent the burial and resurrection of Christ. As he was buried in the tomb, so we are buried in the water. As he came forth from the tomb to a newness of life as a resurrected person, so we come forth from baptism in water to a newness of a religious life on earth, serving the Lord and keeping his commandments.

Our immersion is to help us remember the burial and resurrection of Christ.

When

Little children are sinless, they do not need to be baptized, but when we turn 8 we reach the age of accountability. That means we are old enough to be responsible for our own actions and therefore old enough to be baptized.

By what authority

When Joseph Smith was translating the Book of Mormon with Oliver Cowdery, John the Baptist came to them and taught them the correct way to baptize. He gave them the priesthood so that they had the authority to baptize others. The priesthood has been given to other people so that we can have the privilege of being baptized by someone with the proper authority.

The person who baptizes each of you will have the same priesthood that John the Baptist had

I know that Bowen made the right choice to be baptized into this the true church or Jesus Christ, I am so proud of him. I love this gospel and I love my savior, I am grateful that he suffered for us so that we could return and live with him someday. Amen