Unsure if I am ready for Baptism


MackenzieGumbert
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I have been meeting with the sister missionaries for 3 weeks. There has been a lot of pressure put on me to set a baptism date, they set one for me TEN days from now. I agree with everything that they teach me in the lessons but some of the mormon beliefs that we have not talked about are making me uneasy (the word of wisdom, the family proclamation) I have prayed very hard about the book of Mormon and I feel nothing when I pray about it. I am still unsure if I believe that Joseph Smith was a true prophet. I have told the sisters this but they told me it is just Satan trying to hurt me and that I should go through with my baptism. I am so confused?! Should I be stern and tell the sisters I need to wait longer? I am a sophomore in college, if that matters.

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When you agree to baptism, you have an interview with a different missionary to see if you believe, if you have repented of your sins and if you are prepared to commit to being a member of Christ's church. If you cannot answer those questions affirmatively, then you should wait. But, please, research, study, ask questions and pray. I hope you find an answer that gives you peace.

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I have been meeting with the sister missionaries for 3 weeks. There has been a lot of pressure put on me to set a baptism date, they set one for me TEN days from now. I agree with everything that they teach me in the lessons but some of the mormon beliefs that we have not talked about are making me uneasy (the word of wisdom, the family proclamation) I have prayed very hard about the book of Mormon and I feel nothing when I pray about it. I am still unsure if I believe that Joseph Smith was a true prophet. I have told the sisters this but they told me it is just Satan trying to hurt me and that I should go through with my baptism. I am so confused?! Should I be stern and tell the sisters I need to wait longer? I am a sophomore in college, if that matters.

Wait until you are ready.

Three weeks is a very short time to make such a huge commitment. They should not be pressuring you.

When I was taking the lessons, they brought up a baptismal date fairly quickly (although not as quickly as with you). I felt it was too fast and a little off putting. And I was an Orthodox Jew, so it was a pretty big leap.

My missionaries were great and quickly backed off, and we continued on with the lessons. It really wasn't that much later that I made the decision and set a baptismal date. I understood the covenant I would be making and what kind of life I was committing to.

I think it would be better to wait until you are truly ready to take on these covenants and are able to approach your baptism with joy and excitement, rather than trepidation.

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It is normal for missionaries to have you commit to a baptism date very early in the process of the lessons.

That doesn't mean you have to commit. As Leah said, wait until you are ready.

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Tell your sister missionaries that you are not comfortable with getting baptized in 10 days. As a former missionary, we are strongly encouraged to help people set an actual date, so they have a tangible goal to work towards. However, this is YOUR decision. If you are not comfortable with it, then simply tell them.

You can simply say, "Sisters, I am not ready for baptism on xx date. Here's why I'm not confortable." Or you can say, "Sisters, I need alot more time than that. I understand you want an actual date, but I'm not sure I can committ to an actual date yet. I need to study and pray about this. Will you help me to know what and how to study and pray with me?" Be prepared for them to ask you what your concerns are and for them to try to help you with those.

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Missionaries are pretty eager about baptisms. Preach My Gospel places an emphasis on getting others (you as an investigator in this case) to make commitments. You should not proceed if you do not feel ready. You make covenants at baptism that you will have to keep for the rest of your life. You don't have to be stern to the missionaries--you could talk with them about how you don't feel anything when you pray. Being able to hear and listen to the Holy Ghost is an important first step. As someone else said, another missionary should interview you before baptism, and you may be able to use that as an opportunity to back out if the missionaries continue to be pushy.

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When you agree to baptism, you have an interview with a different missionary to see if you believe, if you have repented of your sins and if you are prepared to commit to being a member of Christ's church. If you cannot answer those questions affirmatively, then you should wait. But, please, research, study, ask questions and pray. I hope you find an answer that gives you peace.

Not quite. As a district leader this is something I learned about. A baptism interview isn't about seeing if the person is ready, it's about the person testifying that they are ready. Sort of like testimony meeting in sacrament: it's to bear the testimony you have, not seen if you have one.

Setting a baptismal date in the first discussion is fine but setting the date for the interview is different. Any missionary who reads preach my gospel knows it says to NOT schedule an interview until AFTER the person is keeping ALL commitments to avoid needing an exception interview.

For the baptism itself, not being ready isn't from Satan. In fact, that is from God. It is about His time and if He says you're not ready then you're not ready. Just remember, it all goes down to the Book of Mormon; if the book is true so is everything else. Stay strong. You're doing really well. I just got the 22nd of October (last month) so feel free to send me a friend request and to message me. I will be more than happy to help any way I can.

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I had set a date but had a panic attack and couldn't leave the house for about 2 weeks (though that was largely caused by other factors, I don't want to single out the church for that... didn't help)

There are things I am unsure of, things I don't agree with and other such stuff...

I do ultimately feel I wouldn't make a good Mormon, though I didn't share most of my issues with the missionaries since I didn't feel they should be burdened with all my head troubles.

Didn't want to bring them down lol

Edited by Lakumi
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It's okay not to be ready right now. If you feel like you need a little more time then tell the Sisters that.

You are young and in college, I would suggest if possible seeking out a Young Single Adult ward and making some friends at church that are your age or returned missionaries. They will help you develop a better understanding of the gospel along with the missionaries. If there isn't a YSA branch, then find some young people at the local ward.

I'll try and explain something. The missionaries are great, however right now in the Church there is a huge influx of very new missionaries (from ~55k to 80k+ in the last year). Generally speaking, there is a junior companion and a senior companion. Missionaries are out for 9 months-1 year before they take the reins and "call the shots" so to speak as a senior companion. However, with the massive influx of new missionaries there are not enough senior missionaries to go around and many senior companions have been out for not a long period of time.

So you will get very gun-ho missionaries, this is very good, however at the same time you will lack some of the wisdom that senior missionaries bring. They will get it, it will just take some time.

Please don't be afraid to bring you concerns, questions, doubts to the missionaries. Baptism is a sacred ordinance and is a covenant between you and God. If you believe that JS was a prophet of God and restored His Church and want to make a covenant with God to become a disciple of Jesus Christ and become a member of His church, then get baptized. If you aren't quite sure, then that is okay, keep working at it until you are sure one way or another.

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I will say that in my experience as a missionary, there were many times were someone testified that they knew that they wanted to be baptized and then immediately after that all sorts of crazy stuff would happen that would put up barriers to getting baptized. Usually that only happened the week of the baptism or after they had an interview, etc.

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Go forth and be baptized when you are ready, I have been investigating for nearly a year now.

I turned down baptism and they have set a goal for baptism on January 18. If I am ready I'll be baptized on that day, or will push it out if I still feel not ready.

If you seek answers the Sisters can help as can this forum. The members here have helped tremendously with my growth and knowledge.

Keep us posted. :)

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I will say that in my experience as a missionary, there were many times were someone testified that they knew that they wanted to be baptized and then immediately after that all sorts of crazy stuff would happen that would put up barriers to getting baptized. Usually that only happened the week of the baptism or after they had an interview, etc.

Yeah for me, I fell while going across a rather dangerous bridge (thankfully not on the bridge but the train track-its abandoned-leading up to it) got a job, became horribly depressed and recluse again.

It happens and though I warned them, I felt they didn't understand, not that I blamed them my problems are weird and unique to me

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  • 2 weeks later...

It took me over 3 years before I got baptized. And that's with my husband being LDS!

The missionaries set many dates, I told them you can set any date you want but it's not happening until I say it's happening. Over 3 years later, I saw my favorite missionary at church - he taught me when he just started his mission, he got transferred, and then I didn't see him again until almost 2 years later when he was due to go home because he got assigned to the mission office that is on the ward boundary of the ward that shared our building. I did not know I was ready to be baptized until that very second that we talked. I just blurted out of the blue - "I want to be baptized.". He was so shocked he was speechless. So then I said I want to be baptized now. He said, we can't do it until I get interviewed. So, I said I want to be interviewed now so I can get baptized now. He said, I need to slow down so we can prepare some stuff. I told him, no. I want to be baptized NOW.

When you're ready, you'll know.

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