A Conversion Story (Part XVIII)
Today marks the 20th anniversary of my baptism into the Church of Jesus Christ. For the month of August, I have been publishing my conversion story serially. For those who have been reading along, thank you. For those who helped the story happen in the first place, thank you even more. And for those who haven’t read it yet (or simply want to do so, again), here’s a link back to the beginning. Thanks again for reading, and God bless!
On the night of 31 August 1991, at 7:00 p.m., Keith and I had our baptismal service. My parents and, I believe, my grandparents came to support me; Keith’s only family present was his mother, his father having all but disowned him long ago because he (Keith) has some chronic health problems that his dad never came to terms with. (I don’t know where his sisters were.) I was baptized first, partly because I wanted to be able to hold it over Keith’s head that I’d been a member longer than he had. Then he got confirmed first, so I never said a word. ;-)
Following the water portion of our baptism, we returned to the Relief Society room, where our families and friends were watching Together Forever. The missionaries and their beaming faces were waiting outside the first door, but our attention was drawn to a small table across from them, on which were placed three copies of a book called Doctrine and Covenants / Pearl of Great Price. We didn’t know what that was, but since it looked kind of like the Book of Mormon, we asked the missionaries to explain.
I don’t remember which missionary looked aghast and said, “We didn’t tell you about those?”, but I wonder if they thought we were going to balk at being confirmed. :-) We responded that no, they hadn’t (I guess we’d gotten off one of our tangents and somehow skipped/missed that part). To rectify the oversight, they explained that it was a compilation of some of the revelations and writings of Joseph Smith, Jr., and his successors in the Presidency of the Church.
“Can I have one?” I asked.
They almost fell over each other to give me one, which process repeated itself when Keith then asked the same question. We then proceeded into the Relief Society room, where we finished the video, were confirmed members of the Church, and started the trip back to our respective homes.
As an aside, I still have the original, missionary editions of the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants / Pearl of Great Price that I got before and on the night of my baptism. The edges of the pages are tinted in yellow highlighter, as my OCD and youthful exuberance required that they match the gilded pages of my Bible. ;-)
Tune in next time for the epilogue!
“All those who humble themselves before God, and desire to be baptized, and come forth with broken hearts and contrite spirits, and witness before the church that they have truly repented of all their sins, and are willing to take upon them the name of Jesus Christ, having a determination to serve him to the end, and truly manifest by their works that they have received of the Spirit of Christ unto the remission of their sins, shall be received by baptism into his church” (D.&C. 20:37).
On the night of 31 August 1991, at 7:00 p.m., Keith and I had our baptismal service. My parents and, I believe, my grandparents came to support me; Keith’s only family present was his mother, his father having all but disowned him long ago because he (Keith) has some chronic health problems that his dad never came to terms with. (I don’t know where his sisters were.) I was baptized first, partly because I wanted to be able to hold it over Keith’s head that I’d been a member longer than he had. Then he got confirmed first, so I never said a word. ;-)
Following the water portion of our baptism, we returned to the Relief Society room, where our families and friends were watching Together Forever. The missionaries and their beaming faces were waiting outside the first door, but our attention was drawn to a small table across from them, on which were placed three copies of a book called Doctrine and Covenants / Pearl of Great Price. We didn’t know what that was, but since it looked kind of like the Book of Mormon, we asked the missionaries to explain.
I don’t remember which missionary looked aghast and said, “We didn’t tell you about those?”, but I wonder if they thought we were going to balk at being confirmed. :-) We responded that no, they hadn’t (I guess we’d gotten off one of our tangents and somehow skipped/missed that part). To rectify the oversight, they explained that it was a compilation of some of the revelations and writings of Joseph Smith, Jr., and his successors in the Presidency of the Church.
“Can I have one?” I asked.
They almost fell over each other to give me one, which process repeated itself when Keith then asked the same question. We then proceeded into the Relief Society room, where we finished the video, were confirmed members of the Church, and started the trip back to our respective homes.
As an aside, I still have the original, missionary editions of the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants / Pearl of Great Price that I got before and on the night of my baptism. The edges of the pages are tinted in yellow highlighter, as my OCD and youthful exuberance required that they match the gilded pages of my Bible. ;-)
Tune in next time for the epilogue!
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