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Posted

Planning on being sealed as a family in the temple but have a few questions.

My husband who was born (blessed) into the church apparantly never got baptized. Although he remembers it, the person who baptized him does not so he's not able to sign a statement saying he did or however they do it. I know he can be baptized now but have heard that he has to wait one year before we enter the temple. Someone else told me since we have his records he can still get baptized and we don't have to wait the year.

I know this is a question I should really ask my bishop which I'll do at church next week, but just thought I would get a headstart and see if any of you know.

Thanks in Advance!

Posted

Someone else told me since we have his records he can still get baptized and we don't have to wait the year.

What do you mean by this? Children who are blessed as infants but are not baptized drop off the Church records when they turn nine years old. So if he has a Church record, then he was baptized.

Posted

This happened to my then-wife. We were getting ready to be sealed but her records did not have a baptism date on them. She still remembers the date, told them, and they added it to her records. We went through the temple a few months later. But your experience may be different since this was 14 years ago.

Posted

Also for the sake of information, any time anyone over the age of 18 (I think it's 18 anyway) is baptized into the LDS Church, they must be a member in good standing for one year before going through the temple for themselves. They may participate in baptisms and confirmations on behalf of the dead in the temple almost immmediately (subject to approval by their Bishop).

The one year waiting period is also applicable for people in the process of repentance for certain sins, whether they were raised in the church or joined as adults.

Temple attendance is one of the main points of the efforts of the LDS church. We want as many people as possible in the temples as often as possible. However, due to the sacred nature of the temple and all that it involves and represents, we must do so according to the will of God. God has set the standard for temple attendance and it is important that we do all we can to meet that standard. Sometimes patience in this is tough to come by, but when it's done God's way, the blessings are unimagineable.

Posted (edited)

What do you mean by this? Children who are blessed as infants but are not baptized drop off the Church records when they turn nine years old. So if he has a Church record, then he was baptized.

They actually aren't removed from Church records until age 18. But at age 9, the bishop may no longer authorize the baptism and the record remains as what is known as a 'temporary record.'

Also, he may have a permanent record if he has other ordinances recorded. For instance, if he has a priesthood ordination recorded, the system would consider him a member even though he is missing a baptismal date. In cases like this, what I would suspect is that the baptism and ordination occurred before the MLS software. Before the Church set up its network of computers in the United States and Canada, clerks would record ordinances locally and mail copies of the paperwork to Salt Lake to be recorded centrally. It wasn't uncommon for paperwork to not get sent and ordinances not recorded centrally, and so the Church would record subsequent ordinances on the assumption that prior ordinances had been performed.

As an example, there is a member in my unit who is endowed, but we have no date of his Melchizedek Priesthood ordination. When he showed up at the temple for his endowment, they performed the ordinance because he had a recommend and there was nothing else to be done. Today, that would never happen because the new software system will not allow you to activate a temple recommend unless the man has a Melchizedek Priesthood Ordination recorded.

Edited by MarginOfError
Posted

I remember in the missionfield (ok, 20+ years ago but I think it still applies) that when a child who is 9 years old is baptized, they're counted as a convert baptism.

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