You may not presently know of anyone with the ability to baptize you. God can lead you to such a person, and your effort to find one is part of the process of coming into submission to God. For example, Limhi and his people experienced an increase in preparatory humility as they sought someone to baptize them, finally coming under the authority of Alma, who they had previously rejected, persecuted, and chased out of their kingdom.
In the meantime, remember that baptism is a part of repentance, not the other way around. You can fully reconcile your life to your understanding of Jesus before you meet someone capable of baptizing you, and doing so is the best way to prepare to recognize and receive them when you do. For example, as the aforementioned people of Limhi searched for someone to baptize them, they were able to make the sacrifice of deciding to follow the Lord’s example at all costs:
They were desirous to be baptized as a witness and a testimony that they were willing to serve God with all their hearts... (Mosiah 21:35)
...for they themselves had entered into a covenant with God to serve him and keep his commandments. (Mosiah 21:31)
The fact that the blessings of a broken heart and contrite spirit are available to those who have no available way to be baptized does not mean that baptism is of no effect, or that its outcomes are available to those who have not received it. Every commandment from God has a blessing associated with it,820 and baptism is no exception. The blessings of baptism consist of the blessing of living up to your understanding of God’s commandments, as well as blessings that come through the interactions between the person being baptized and the priest who baptizes them. Water baptism matters beyond the general blessings of obeying all commandments because it requires you to find and reconcile to the teachings of a person who knows more about God than you do and therefore can provide you with invitations to improve beyond where you could otherwise.821
Footnotes
- 1. And ye shall go forth baptizing with water, saying: Repent ye, repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. (D&C 42:7) ↩
- 2. Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus. And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him. (Acts 8:35-38) ↩
- 3. The schools of the prophets and extended “households” accomplished this purpose. For example, the household of Abraham consisted of more than three hundred men (see Genesis 14:14), besides women and children, of varying levels of aptitude and interest in the gospel he believed, but all of whom were willing to adopt his purpose in their scope sufficiently to abide with him in his sojourn through the land. ↩