Note: According to the Church's General Handbook, "Baptisms should be performed in a baptismal font if one is available. If there is not a font, a safe body of water may be used. It should be large enough for both the person performing the ordinance and the person being baptized to stand in. Water is not dedicated for baptisms."
Responses are edited for length and clarity.
On an episode of the Come, Follow Me podcast Sunday on Monday, host Tammy Uzelac Hall asked study group members where they were baptized. Surprisingly, the answers that came through on social media were quite varied, from the Aegean Sea to the Manti Utah Temple. But one thing stayed the same: the indelible mark this sacred ordinance had on the memory of those who responded. Here are just a few of those responses.
"I was baptized in a font in Washington where we lived at the time. My dad joined the Military later that year and four years later when my sister was baptized, she was baptized in a swimming pool on the base we were stationed at in Japan."
"In the Atlantic Ocean in July and it was soooooooooo cold."
—Jane Surette
"A font with warm water in Vernal, Utah. I know of people who were baptized in fjords, even in the colder seasons. I think that’s amazing!"
—Aimee Grubaugh McCarrey
"Aegean Sea off the coast of Athens, Greece."
—Robyn Keesling
"I was baptized in a font. My twins were baptized in our pool. One of them has special needs and wouldn't go into the font. It was beautiful."
—Kelli West
"On Halloween 1981 in Idaho Falls at the stake center in a font. But how can you forget your baptism date when it was Halloween as an 8-year-old?"
"I was baptized at the Tabernacle on Temple Square in Salt Lake City."
—June Uzelac
"My stepdad was baptized in a swimming pool fed by hot spring. It was in the winter and snowing, steam was rising from the pool!"
—Tricia Shepard
"The Manti [Utah] Temple, 1949."
"The children in our Fulda-West Germany branch were baptized in the Karmann house indoor swimming pool. The mansion was built by Volkswagen designer Karmann Ghia. After WWII, he turned the building over to the U.S. Army in gratitude. It was the 11th ACR Deputy Community Commander’s headquarters. My dad was the the commander and branch president. It was so deep that they would put a folding chair in the pool for the kids to stand on. I was always envious of those kids. As for me, I was baptized in the church font in Jackson Hole [Wyoming]."
—Cecil Shern