A Priceless Story

May 12, 2014

I am going to tell you the tale of a Saturday afternoon.

So we were sitting at the baptism of an 8-year-old girl in our congregation.  Attending with us was one of the families we are teaching. They have 5 children over the age of 8, and then the smartest three-year-old to ever walk the streets of Indio, California. (When we first met him, we were holding Books of Mormon in our hands, and he said "van a estudiar conmigo? yo quiero ese libro. Me lo reglan? cuando van a regresar y estudiar conmigo?" (Are you guys going to study with me? I want that book; will you give it to me? When are you going to come back and study with me?)

Continuing the story...

So we were sitting there, listening to a couple of short little talks, and then the young girl and her dad entered the baptismal font. One of the investigator's sons who is about 11 quickly changed seats so that he had a better view. As soon as she came up out of the water, he turned to me and said: "Do you have to pay to do that?"

me: "nope, anyone can do it that wants to follow God."

him: "and after baptism, you follow God and He forgives you?"

me: "yep"

him: "....are you sure you don't have to pay?"

When he first asked the question it almost made me laugh. Of course you don't have to pay to come closer to Christ! But then as I thought about it and thought, "He gets it. He understands how important this is, and how special a gift baptism is. In his mind, it would make sense for something so precious to be of monetary value."  He feels like I do. If people understood baptism, I mean reeeeeeeally understood it, then they would be lining up to receive this incredible gift. If Members of the church really understood baptism, they wouldn't be able to WAIT to share it with their friends.

That’s what I learned from an 11-year-old last Saturday.

Love,  

-Hermana Thomas