Ocean Baptisms

Ocean Baptisms 


Usually baptisms are held in the fonts at the various chapels on the island.  The Moroni High School font and bathrooms are being renovated and re-tiled.  So on May 26th a baptism took place immediately behind our apartment in the ocean.  A young man age 14 and another young man about 19 and two other sisters age 19 were baptized in the ocean water.


Sister Tieke and Sister Balenacagi taught them the discussions.  The major challenge for the baptism was trying to get to the ocean.  There is a fence along the ocean front and the gate was locked and no one could find a key.  The lock was rusty, so finally in desperation, with a few blows from a hammer the lock was broken and they descended the rock stairs down the seawall to the ocean.  After walking out into the ocean a few hundred yards, the water was deep enough to perform the baptism.

Young man receiving final instructions before being baptized

The four new converts with Sister Tieke (from Tarawa) on the left and Sister Balenacagi back row on the right.   Sister Tieke is from Tarawa and sister Balenacagi is from Fiji. 

June 2, 2012

The following week - three more people were baptized, a husband of a member and a young man and his mother.  The baptism were scheduled for 7:00 am because their is a stake wide cultural event on Moroni campus later in the day.  (We will have pictures and other information about the cultural even in a future post)


The font is still being re-tiled, so the baptism again took place in the ocean.  The baptism was an hour and a half late getting started and the tide had gone out, so they were unable to baptize them in the ocean side of the island.  So instead it was held in the lagoon side.   It was necessary to walk across the main road on the lagoon on the opposite side of the island (which is only about one-half mile from the ocean side.  The candidates, and those baptizing them had to wade another  half mile to find water deep enough for the baptisms.  Eventually, the ordinance was performed but it was too far away to get good photos.

These three new converts were also taught by Sister Tieke and Sister Balenacagi.  After baptisms it is inspirational to hear each of the new converts get up and bare their testimony, even if it is in Kiribati.  The next day in Sacrament meeting they are confirmed members of the Church and again they are asked to bare their testimony. They do not hesitate but get up in front of the congregation and bare witness of the truthfulness of the gospel.

After walking across the sandbars and then the ocean floor until they reached the water , it was necessary to continue wading until the water was deep enough to completely emerge those being baptized.