August 2006 Ensign - The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

50
Missionaries
(and
parents
as well) are to
teach “Baptism by
immersion for the
remission of sins
[and the] Laying on
of hands for the gift
of the Holy Ghost.”
angels, which simply means that you can
speak with the power of the Holy Ghost. It
will be quiet. It will be invisible. There will not
be a dove. There will not be cloven tongues of
fire. But the power will be there.
Missionaries sometimes think they are only
to do half the work; they are to teach and then
baptize by water, and that concludes their
work. In many cases the other half, the teaching
about the baptism of fire, never really gets
done. Put the two together so that you almost
forbid yourself to say “baptism” without saying
“confirmation”—that is baptism of the water
and confirmation and the conferring of the
gift of the Holy Ghost. Get that idea in your
mind with those two fixed together so tightly
that, as one, it becomes part of you. Then we
will not have the first half done, as is
often the case at present, and the
other half left undone.
Remember what Joseph
Smith said: “You might as well
baptize a bag of sand as a man,
if not done in view of the
remission of sins
and getting of the Holy Ghost. Baptism by
water is but half a baptism, and is good for
nothing without the other half—that is, the
baptism of the Holy Ghost.”
Missionaries—and parents as well—are to
teach both halves: “Baptism by immersion for
the remission of sins [and the] Laying on of
hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost” (Articles
of Faith 1:4). Make it one sentence. Fix it in
the front of your minds so that when you say
one, you say the other, and when you think
one, you think the other. Then you will begin
to feel and understand, and the promptings
will come.
Opposition by the Adversary
One word of warning: there is also a spirit
of opposition and evil. That warning can
also be found in the scriptures:
“Whatsoever thing persuadeth men
to do evil, and believe not in Christ,
and deny him, and serve not God,
then ye may know with a perfect
knowledge it is of the devil; for after
this manner doth the devil work, for
he persuadeth no man to do good,
no, not one; neither do his
angels; neither do they
who subject themselves
unto him”
(Moroni 7:17).