Libbets

The past couple of days I've been thinking a lot about baptism. And then there it was a date. I dismissed the date as something that I possibly had to do on that day and then there it was again. I tried to put it out of my mind and concentrate on what I was doing, driving at the time. And there it was again. I'd go to sleep thinking about the date and wake up with the date. What does this date mean? At sacrament meeting today I realised what the date meant. It was the day I was to be baptized. After the meeting I went to the missionaries and told them I had a date. They looked surprised, I think they thought it wasn't ever going to come. So my date is Sept. 12.

Thanks for all the answers and welcomes. A little background on me. I grew up without any religion in my home. It was always understood that my parents believed in God but we never went to church. The only church I'd ever been exposed to was the Catholic Church, from my babysitter. Whenever we went on vacation there was a small get-together of kids that got together to worship and fellowship and learn His teachings, but I wouldn't call it a church more like a, "this is the thing Beth can do to get out of our hair for a bit." I remember being about 9 years old when I asked my Mom what religion I was. I was told that I was never baptized because they wanted me to find my own religion. My first answer was Judaism but my Mom said I couldn't be Jewish because I had to be "born" Jewish. My next answer was Catholic and again my Mom said I couldn't be Catholic because I had to be born Catholic. At that point I had run out of religions (that's all I knew at 9). So I asked what religion I could be. Her answer, which is starting to sound more and more like a punchline, was, "your father is a baptist and I was raised Lutheran that must make you a Methodist." So I started reading as many books on as many religions as possible. Oddly enough LDS never came up. I read about all the other major religions but none of them ever "sat" quite right with me. Then I read Under the Banner of Heaven and I knew I had to read the Book of Mormon. More out of curiosity than anything else. I went to mormon.org ordered my book and eagerly awaited it's arrival. It never did. I would see missionaries on the street and hope they would knock on my door. That never happened. It wasn't until I was were I shouldn't have been that I saw missionaries and I ran up to them and asked them for a book. They were quite surprised and taken aback. But I had my book and an appointment to start the lessons. Finally, all my questions would be answered. That was 6 or 7 weeks ago. I started to read the new testament, as I now realize that I don't think I ever had. I think that I need to understand Jesus in order to love Him. I'm glad to have found a community that I can bounce things off of when they come up and the missionaries aren't directly in front of me. I have to ask God for wisdom and receive the truth from Him.

My name is Beth and have been investigating the church for a little over a month now. I attend sacrament meetings regularly and have been faithfully reading my scriptures. I have been receiving the teachings of the missionaries every week. So from the outside it appears that I am a progressing investigator. But, I'm wrestling with all these questions. I've been approached by the missionaries twice to set a date for baptism but am afraid that it is too soon. In the sacrament meetings I get promptings and witnesses from the holy spirit regularly and have felt like that is just where I belong. The doctrines aren't that different (IMHO) than most of the ones that I grew up with. The Words of Wisdom seem more like a good handbook on how to live. The last time that the missionaries "cornered" me about baptism I told them that there were a couple of things that I had to reconcile for myself. The one being the ultimate, is The Book of Mormon what it says it is. I enjoy reading the book and believe that it is an inspired book but the story of how the book came to be and the actual translation of it all seems a little hokey to me. Do I believe that man receives revelations from God and that Joseph Smith and, now, President Monson are prophets of God? Yes. The other big things that I had to find out were could I convert to a religion if I didn't wholeheartedly believe in some of the stances that it's taken? Namely, homosexuality and abortion. The churches view on homosexuality is that it goes against God and his plan for marriage and family. That they're willing to accept that there are gay people in the world but they haven't sinned unless they've actually committed the act. But in Matthew 5:28 it says But I say unto you. That whosoever looketh on a woman in lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. So wouldn't the same be true of homosexual thoughts? I don't believe that my Heavenly Father would create people that are gay as a "test" of their will to abide by the plan and commandments he set forth. I don't believe that gay is a choice. There is no one that would choose that life, it seems much easier to choose to be heterosexual. As far as abortion goes the church believes in abortion for rape and incest, if the baby will not survive much past the birth or the mother's life is in danger. That's a hard line in the sand to draw and they've done much better than the christian right (speaking politically). I agree with those things, but I also agree that there are irresponsible teenagers out there that have unprotected sex and get pregnant. It happens all the time, so much so that MTV has made a whole show out of it. What about them? The ones who were pressured into sex, who made wrong choices? Do we leave them out in the cold to raise a child? Some of these kids I wouldn't give a puppy to, let alone another human being. It is true that there are those that rise up to the challenge. But we shouldn't believe that they are all like that. That everyone will be a success story. After I finished talking about these things they continued on and said that they felt that I should be baptized in 2 weeks. So I had 2 weeks to reconcile all these feelings and align my views with the church. I didn't think I could do it so I told the missionaries at the next lesson that I didn't think I was ready and wanted to finish reading the Book of Mormon. I had also read some general conference notes from Elder Oaks and he spoke about "goal baptism", but I think that the missionaries thought it was cooler that I was reading notes from general conference rather than what I was saying. So I put the question out there. Can I convert to the LDS Church without aligning my beliefs? Can I believe in the LDS Church if I don't believe the story of where the Book of Mormon came from if I believe that it is inspired scripture and not a literal translation of a book found in a hill and translated through a hat? Thanks in advance.