On
Saturday, Emily and I traveled to Fukuoka ,
Japan
In
doing baptisms for the dead, we act as proxies and get baptized in behalf of
our ancestors who have already passed on, if they did not get baptized with the
proper authority while they were on earth.
Even though their bodies are no longer alive, their spirits never die. Those people have the opportunity to accept the
message or reject it, just as people do on earth. We do the baptisms for everyone we can, but
the choice is theirs whether to accept it.
We can tell that baptisms for the dead were done in Christ’s
era, because the apostle Paul wrote:
“Else what shall they do which are
baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? Why are they then baptized for the
dead?” (1 Cor 15:29)
If you're wondering why Mormons think our church has the
authority to perform ordinances that are valid in heaven as well as on
earth, you can find those answers at http://www.mormon.org/beliefs/restoration.
As
I was saying, these wonderful youth and/or their families did research to find ancestors
to do baptisms for in the temple. Before
we could enter the temple, we had to be interviewed by the Branch President to
be sure we’re living according to God’s commandments.
Travelogue
Saturday morning, we all met at 7:30
a.m. to carpool to the airport. Check-in
was really fast and easy for our domestic flight with no luggage to check!
The flight to Fukuoka
was about an hour an a half. We ate lunch at
the airport, and those who had chosen not to wear dress clothes on the plane
changed our clothes. (And I accidentally
left my jeans in the airport bathroom, but after a wild goose chase to the lost
and found, I got them back when we returned to the airport for our departing
flight—yay!)
We took the subway most of the way to the temple. This was very exciting for some of these kids
who had never ridden on a subway! We
were going to walk the rest of the way, but the subway took longer than we
thought, and we were running behind, so we took taxis the rest of the way. The Young Men’s President hailed our taxi,
said the word for “zoo” in Japanese (because the temple is by the zoo), and
then shut the door and sent us on our way.
It was cool to ride through the streets of Fukuoka and suddenly see such a different-looking
building among all the others—the House
of the Lord.
The temple is beautiful inside and out! Inside, the carpets and walls and much of the
furniture are shades of white. It is
light, clean, and beautiful. But beyond
the physical appearance, there is serenity there. The Holy Ghost’s presence can be easily felt
there. I love it. It’s a sanctuary from the world.
Youth ages 12 and up can do baptisms and confirmations in
the temple. Adults can also do other ordinances (including eternal marriage for themselves
and those who have passed on). When
Paul and I got married, it was in a temple.
(To learn more about eternal marriage, go to http://www.mormon.org/faq/topic/marriage.) So, we usually leave the baptisms to the
youth so they can have that experience.
But this time, one of the girls got the stomach flu and had to stay home, so I did the
baptisms and confirmations for the people she was going to do. We could have divided up those names between
all the other girls, but they were already each going to do 15 or 16 each, and
that’s a lot of times going under the water!
So, once we arrived, we went to the dressing rooms to change
into white clothing. The temple has
white jumpsuits people can wear. Then we
sat down on the pews near the beautiful baptismal font. It looked much like this one—
The temple president, Brother Shiraishi, then spoke to us
for a few minutes about the sacred work we’d be doing. He had written his remarks in English and I
appreciated his efforts in sharing his message with us in our language. His words invited the presence of the Holy
Ghost even more. For me, it is kind of a
“warm” feeling in my chest, but not warm in temperature. When he said that the people for whom we
would be doing these baptisms would be watching, the Holy Ghost testified to my
heart that that was true.
We had brought with us men from our branch who hold the
priesthood who could perform the baptisms and confirmations in English. (Any man in our church who keeps the
commandments can hold the priesthood.) The
first person to baptize was the father of the youngest girl who came. She’s barely 12, so this was her first time
in the temple. What a wonderful
experience for her, to have her own father baptize her on behalf of those
passed on! Three other youth had their
fathers there as well, and we arranged it so that the fathers could baptize their own children. One of the fathers
baptized his son on behalf of his own father, and his daughter on behalf of his
father’s mother. What a wonderful thing! Emily was baptized on behalf of some of
Paul’s ancestors.
After our time at the temple, we walked to a nearby church
building and had a short testimony meeting afterward. A testimony meeting is when people can share
their feelings and testimonies (what they know to be true) with each other to strengthen
each other. After such a sacred
experience as a youth temple trip, it is great for these teenagers to share
their feelings with each other. Katie’s
was my favorite testimony. She is 12
years old and she said she didn't know the people whose names her grandma and
given her to do, but she said it made her “soul happy” and her “heart smile” to
be baptized for them.
We concluded the meeting and walked back to the subway
station, and rode the subway back to the airport. After check-in, we bought some food for
dinner, and then flew back to Okinawa (after I
got my jeans back!). We got home late,
so we were pretty tired the next day!
But the experience was so
worth the trip! I had a wonderful time and
was especially happy for the youth to have this sacred experience.
