Following are the words of Joseph Smith as he tells
of this event.
We
still continued the work of translation [of the Book of Mormon],
when in the ensuing month, (May, 1829) we on a certain day went
into the woods to pray and inquire of the Lord respecting baptism
for the remission of sins, as we found mentioned in the translation
of the plates.
While we were thus employed, praying and calling
upon the Lord, a messenger from heaven descended in a cloud
of light, and having laid his hands upon us, he ordained us,
saying unto us, "Upon you my fellow servants, in the name
of Messiah, I confer the Priesthood of Aaron, which holds the
keys of the ministering of angels, and of the gospel of repentance,
and of baptism by immersion for the remission of sins, and this
shall never be taken again from the earth until the sons of
Levi do offer again an offering unto the Lord in righteousness.”
He said this Aaronic Priesthood had not the power of laying
on of hands, for the gift of the Holy Ghost, but that this should
be conferred on us hereafter; and he commanded us to go and
be baptized, and gave us directions that I should baptize Oliver
Cowdery, and afterwards that he should baptize me.
Accordingly we went and were baptized, I baptized him first,
and afterwards he baptized me; after which I laid my hands upon
his head and ordained him to the Aaronic Priesthood, and afterwards
he laid his hands on me and ordained me to the same priesthood,
for so we were commanded.
The messenger who visited us on this occasion, and conferred
this priesthood upon us, said that his name was John; the same
that is called John the Baptist, in the New Testament; and that
he acted under the direction of Peter, James, and John, who
held the keys of the priesthood of Melchisedec; which
priesthood he said should in due time be conferred on us—and
that I should be called the first elder, and he the second.
It was on the fifteenth day of May, eighteen hundred and twenty-nine,
that we were baptized and ordained under the hand of the messenger.
Immediately upon our coming up out of the water, after we had
been baptized, we experienced great and glorious blessings from
our heavenly Father. No sooner had I baptized Oliver Cowdery
than the Holy Ghost fell upon him, and he stood up and prophesied
many things which should shortly come to pass.
And again, as soon as I had been baptized by him, I also had
the spirit of prophecy; when standing up, I prophesied concerning
the rise of the Church, and many other things connected with
the Church and this generation of the children of men. We were
filled with the Holy Ghost and rejoiced in the God of our salvation
(Joseph Smith Tells His Own Story,
pp. 25–27).
