The Lord, upon His appearance to the Nephites, identifies Himself and allows them to feel the prints of the nails in His body. He immediately begins to teach them concerning the ordinance of baptism. There are thirteen references to baptism in 3 Nephi 11. Surely the Lord wants His people not only to profess Him as the Savior of the world, but He also wants them to make a covenant symbolized by baptism. The Lord wants the kingdom of God built up here upon the earth, as the following excerpts illustrate:
• From the Prophet Joseph Smith: “After all that has been said, the greatest and most important duty is to preach the gospel” (HC 2:478).
• From Elder Bruce R. McConkie: “The Lord wants baptisms. The Lord wants people to come into His church. The Lord wants people to be saved. You cannot be saved without baptism. You cannot be saved outside the Church. Now obviously baptism alone does not guarantee salvation. People get baptized and it simply opens the door and puts them on the straight and narrow path that leads to a Celestial World and they don’t get there unless they climb the length of the path. And so we want people to be converted” (Elder Bruce R. McConkie while serving as a mission president in Australia).
• From President Thomas S. Monson: “In 1990 I attended a priesthood leadership session in Basel, Switzerland, for the Zurich-Munich Region. Regional Representative Johann Wondra, later a temple president, arose and spoke to the audience. He invited Brother Kuno Müller, who was seated near the front of the building, to stand.
“Brother Wondra told the congregation, ‘Here is the missionary who brought the gospel and all that it means to my wife and me. Without him, where would I be?’ He then turned to Brother Müller and said, ‘Brother Müller, I love you. My family and I think of you every day. There has never been a day since we met you that we have not dropped to our knees and thanked Heavenly Father for your testimony and for your teachings of the gospel of Christ.’
“Both Brother Wondra and Brother Müller were weeping. In fact, we all had moist eyes because we had seen an expression of gratitude on the part of one who had received eternal truths, as expressed to the messenger who brought those truths.
“The next morning at the conclusion of the general session, Brother Müller, still a missionary, introduced to us a new family of investigators with whom he was working as a stake missionary, and he was still crying when he said, ‘And they have accepted baptism and will become members of the true church’” (Inspiring Experiences That Build Faith: From the Life and Ministry of Thomas S. Monson [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1994], 180–181). (Ed J. Pinegar)