At the baptismal interview, there’s a series of questions they ask you just to make sure you’re ready to make the covenants that are associated with getting baptized … namely by taking on the name of the Lord by keeping and obeying God’s laws and commandments, and by following Christ’s example by the way we live each day. This was not your “Be good at church, then go home and gossip, swear, drink, and do whatever you want” type of church. This was how it should be because, in the Bible, GOD told people how to live, not the other way around. HE gave the laws and commandments and expected His children to keep an obey them, just as a parent lays down the house rules in their own home and expect their kids to follow them.
Somehow societies began to think that it was their choice to pick and choose how they wanted to worship God and we can see where that has led … to a multitude of different religions and beliefs. Just because we have the right and privilege to believe something, doesn’t make it the truth. I discovered that when I learned how wrong my dad was about the Catholics and Mormons.
Ron conducted my interview. He asked me several questions, including if I smoked or drank alcoholic beverages, or had committed any immoral sins. I explained my past experiences and how I had left that type of environment behind after seeing my friends getting drawn deeper into everything. He asked if I drank coffee, tea, or caffeinated drinks, and I replied that I didn’t do any of those either except for Japanese tea once in awhile. I was willing to give up anything now because God had kept his promise to me. I already knew that drinking sodas was bad for you because when I was younger I sometimes drank it quite a bit and it literally tore my stomach up, causing severe stomach aches all the time. When I quit drinking sodas the stomach problems went away.
One of the questions I was asked took me by surprise. Ron had asked me if I had ever committed any serious sins, then jokingly said, “You haven’t murdered anyone, have you?” This hit a nerve, and the look on my face must have surprised him as all the guilt that I had felt over the years regarding the death of my dad, suddenly washed over me. I could feel my eyes welling up with tears. They finally released like water gushing from a collapsed dam as all my hopes sank to the pit of my stomach. Was this going to be the one thing that would prevent me from being baptized? I tearfully recounted the story of what had happened, and how I had told my dad to drop dead and wished he would die, and then he did. It was the same thing as if I had killed him myself, wasn’t it?
Ron leaned over and looked at me with such compassion in his eyes. He assured me that it wasn’t my fault … that my dad knew I didn’t mean it, and that our Father in Heaven knew it as well. He said they knew how I had suffered from that burden of guilt throughout the years and that all has been forgiven and I didn’t need to carry that burden any longer. “We all sometimes say things we don’t mean when we’re mad,” he replied. Oh, what a relief it was to hear those words! Instantly, it was as if the world had been lifted off of my shoulders!
After the interview, which I passed, incidentally, I couldn’t wait for the day of my baptism! I was surprised at how many people showed up for it, and how my life had instantly changed from that point on!