Our First Baptisms

I know that I have readers that are not LDS, so I wanted to explain something before I talk about what happened last night.

If you believe in God and you believe that the bible is true, then you probably believe that in order to return to our Heavenly Father you have to be baptized. What about the people that didn't get a chance? Do you really think that our Heavenly Father would be so unjust that he wouldn't ensure that eveyone had an opportunity to receive that important ordinance of baptism? I believe this church to be true. I believe that the fullness of the gospel was taken from the earth many years ago, and that through Joseph Smith the fullness of the gospel was restored. I believe that during the time that the gospel was not on this earth that the priesthood, who has the authority to baptize was also not on this earth.

If you're not LDS I understand that you don't believe this, but I do and just want to clarify all of this before I elaborate on last night.

I had a friend once explain to Gino about being baptized by the proper priesthood authority like this.... Basically, let's say you want to get a driver's license and you decide to go and get it from this guy who makes them in Oak Park (I'm from Sac... it's ghetto there LOL) instead of going to the DMV and get the proper one. So, you have your license and your driving around, but it's not a true drivers license... right? It's the same we think about baptism. So, that's why Gino got baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints even though he was already baptized once in the Catholic church. He needed to get baptized by someone who had the proper priesthood authority, and on October 11, 2008 he did just that.

Okay... so back to the people that never had a chance to get baptized by the proper authority. That is one of the beautiful things about our temples. We as members can go and get baptized for our ancestor's who have passed away that never had the opportunity to get baptized. That is what baptisms for the dead are all about.

Last night Gino the honor and priveledge to get baptized for 2 of his uncles that passed away. These uncles were uncles that he was very close to. Last night Gino walked down the steps to the baptisimal font and for his first time ever baptisms for the dead was baptized for Tim & Jorge Garibay. After Gino came out of the water and sat down to get them confirmed and to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, the emotions were strong... even our Bishop stopped because he was starting to cry. It was an amazing.

I had the honor and priveledge to get baptized for a dear friend of mine that was murdered. Melody Hawkins was a close friend to our entire family, and I am so happy that I was able to get baptized for somebody that was truly a special soul.

I'm excited to be able to work on our genaeology and start doing all the work for our ancestor's who never had the opportunity to receive the ordinace of baptism.