Danny Sorensen, a 48-year-old Latter-day Saint with fragile x syndrome, has stood in dozens of temple baptismal fonts.
Though he can’t read with fragile x syndrome — an genetic disorder that causes intellectual disabilities and is commonly linked to autism — he has the baptismal prayer memorized.
Years ago, his late uncle, Garth Adams, stood next to Sorensen in a temple font for the first time to perform baptisms for those who have died. Adams read the baptismal prayers so that Sorensen could follow along, repeating every word.
After that moment, “it got to the point where he could do it himself,” said Kris Sorensen, Danny Sorensen’s mother — a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from the South Jordan Utah Glenmoor Stake.
Since that first time in the warm water many years ago, Danny Sorensen has been baptized for over 2,000 people in Latter-day Saint temples — the vast majority of the baptisms were for deceased family members. Sorensen, his mother and his younger brother Matthew, who is autistic, have now served in almost every temple in Utah.
She recalled visiting the Jordan River Utah Temple with her two sons, surrounded by temple workers in the baptistry. “When we got through, my son said, ‘Mom, I made that man cry,’” referring to a temple worker.
Following his father’s example
In 2022, Danny Sorensen’s father, Vernal Sorensen, died. It was then that Danny Sorensen’s love for service in the temple grew exponentially, Kris Sorensen explained.
Before his father’s death, Danny Sorensen remembers seeing his parents leaving for the temple with a bag of clothes in it. He knew the temple was important to his father — he wanted to take his own bag to the house of the Lord, too.
“He had his dad’s old temple bag, and so I bought him a baptismal suit and stuff, and this is what he wanted and needed, so that’s what we did,” said his mother.
Now, Danny Sorensen brings his late father’s temple bag with him to every temple he goes to — with his own baptismal suit inside, as a way of honoring his father and following his example, even after his passing.
“Blessings happen, and it just brings a lot of joy to my heart to have [my sons],” she said. “They’re a gift from our Heavenly Father, and I’m going do the best that I can to help them to navigate through life.”
Continuing their work
Now, Sorensen and her two sons have visited most temples in Utah, and have even ventured to the Nauvoo Illinois Temple and the Kansas City Missouri Temple. Her oldest, Danny, performs the baptisms. Her younger son, Matthew, performs confirmations.
In those temple baptistries, “the Spirit is there,” said Kris Sorensen.
Following each temple session, Sorensen, at home with her two boys, writes down for her sons the experiences that they had in the temple that day, the names of the people they were baptized and confirmed for and other meaningful messages.
Sorensen herself has felt peace, help and guidance from the Lord as she has brought her sons to the temple, she said. “It has helped me learn that I really do have a testimony,” she said, explaining that though her faith has always been there, now it is fortified.
“A lot of these youth have a strong spirit with them and a lot of them can do lots of things — we just have to help them," she said. “Just don’t give up, and rely on the Lord because He’s not going to leave us. He’s there. We just have to reach out and ask him for the help.
“My son keeps asking, ‘Mom, do you think these people are happy that we did this?” Kris Sorensen said. She responds every time, ”Most of them were our family.”
