Come to My Baptism

Peter and Susan Vousden, England

Is your child getting baptized? Family and friends in the Church will likely come to witness the special occasion. Why not invite nonmember friends as well?

Our four children each invited nonmember friends and their parents, as well as school teachers and other important people in their lives, to their baptisms. In all, we extended 50 invitations, handwritten with directions to the meetinghouse.

Nobody seemed to be offended by our invitation. In fact, we saw many positive results. Our son’s school teacher accepted a copy of the Book of Mormon, and another family agreed to join us for a family home evening. Two mothers commented on how touched they were by the baptismal service, and several children asked their parents about going to church. One little girl, after seeing our daughter’s baptism, said she’d like to do the same. And another mother defended the Church in a conversation with a teacher at the local high school.

To our knowledge, none of our nonmember baptism guests have chosen to join the Church. But we know they appreciate our friendship and our desire to share a beautiful, spiritual experience with them.