FHE: Baptism

We were out of town for the first 3 Mondays in July (flying in a plane for 2 of them) so I didn't do FHE then.  Last week, I probably should have, but the hubby was gone directing a tour to Nauvoo, so I just decided to be lazy until our whole family was together again.

I admit, tonight I just winged it... the kids really really really needed a bath, so we decided to talk about baptism while they took one.  I just showed pictures from the Gospel Art Book- the one where the girl gets baptized and confirmed and where Jesus is getting baptized by John the Baptist, and I asked questions to my almost 4-year old about it.  (I was surprised by how much he knew!)

-How old do you need to be to get baptized? (8)
-Who does the baptizing? (a priesthood holder, like your dad.  My dad baptized me, but daddy was baptized by a missionary)
-What happens?  (wear white, special prayer, get dunked under water)
-Why do they dunk you all the way? (represents washing our sins away like we wash dirt in the bath, also we lie down completely as if we have died and come back up as if we have resurrected (like Jesus did at Easter) into our new life- free from sin)
-I compared covenants to a "pinky swear" with Heavenly Father, because he knows about those, and talked about what we promise and what He promises us.
That lead us to talk about the gift of the Holy Ghost a little bit.
-Why did Jesus have to be baptized?  Does he have sins?  (no, He doesn't, but everyone needs to make those covenants with Heavenly Father to live with him again.  Jesus also needed to set an example to teach those around him what the proper way to be baptized is.)

My son had a funny interpretation :)  He thought we meant the Holy Ghost gives us presents- "like on Easter".  hehe  We had to explain that the Holy Ghost IS a gift from Heavenly Father.

It wasn't the most "exciting" or "fun" lesson, but I was surprised by how engaged my son was anyway.  When we were done talking about baptism, he started flipping through the gospel art book and asking us about who different prophets were and what was going on in each picture.  I feel like we covered a lot tonight!