Baptism Book

Our oldest son turned 8 last month.

In our church that's a very special age.

At the age of 8 children can be baptized by immersion (in water) and become official members of the church. We are baptized the same way that Jesus was baptized as described in the Bible.

(If you would like to learn more about baptism you can click this link lds.org)

On this special day family and friends go to the church building and are able to watch the baptism along with hearing some music and talks about the gospel. 

I wanted to have something for my son to look back on from his special day, something that family and friends would be able to leave a sweet message in for him, so I came up with this sign-in book.

I put this together a few weeks beforehand so it would have time to be printed and shipped.

One Sunday after church my husband stayed home with our younger two boys, and I took our eldest to the temple so we could take some pictures of him in his shirt and tie.

I have made Shutterfly books many times in the past, so I knew that was the route I wanted to go, especially since I had a coupon for a free book, just had to pay shipping! 

And no, this is not a sponsored post :)

I had taken pictures on my phone and on my Nikon camera, but for some reason when I went to upload the pictures I only uploaded the ones from my phone...I had somehow forgotten there were any pictures on the camera...so I only had about 5.

The book I was making was an 8x8 and had the standard 20 pages, so I needed something else to fill the blank pages.

My husband and I Googled some images and scriptures and filled the remaining pages with that.

I ordered the book and waited patiently for it to arrive!

When you open the book, this is the first page.

It's an image we found on Google that says:

"The gate by which ye should enter is repentance and baptism by water"

2 Nephi 31:17

For the rest of the book I had a picture of my son, or a scripture/quote on the left side of the book, and on the right side was a blank page for the people coming to the baptism to write on.

My Baptismal Covenants

Heavenly Father Promises:
1. He will forgive me

2. He will give me the gift of the Holy Ghost

3. He will give me eternal life

What I promise:
1. I will follow Jesus

2. I will remember Jesus

3. I will keep His commandments

"Come unto me, and be baptized in my name, that ye may receive a remission of your sins, and be filled with the Holy Ghost"

3 Nephi 30:2

This one I actually just typed up myself.

I added a text box on Shutterfly's website and made a large font and typed in the scripture.

'Jesus Set the Example'

"And it came to pass in those days, that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized of John in Jordan.

And straightway coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon him;

And there came a voice from heaven, saying, Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased".

Mark 1:9-11

In this one he is holding his Book of Mormon.

The picture isn't cut off like that in real life, just for the blog :)

I absolutely loved how this book turned out!

On the day of his baptism I set the book on a table right outside of the door to the room we were using, and I set out about 5 different fine tip Sharpie markers for people to use.

When we got home and had a moment my husband and I each took a turn writing in the book as well.

At the end of the day when we were tucking our son into bed, we sat down together and read through all of the comments our family and friends had left.

It was really special and I'm so glad he will have this to look back on forever.