8/30/2015
Today I have been asked to speak on
how the Aaronic priesthood program has helped me prepare for my spiritual and
lifetime mission within the Melchizedek Priesthood. I want to share my
experience of how the priesthood has helped me grow and develop as well as
express my gratitude to each one of you for helping me understand how powerful
the priesthood is. Out of everything the Church offers to its youth and its
Aaronic priesthood holders, the program that I would say helped me personally
grow within the priesthood would be the Duty to God program. It has helped me
tremendously in understanding what my priesthood responsibilities are and how
to prepare for the Melchizedek priesthood with the simple idea of learn, act,
and share. One thing I wish I would have understood as a deacon at 12 years old
is that the program is not simply a to do list. It is a wonderful program that prepares
you to become the elect of God as promised in D&C 84:33-38, the oath and
covenant of the priesthood. Here’s how the duty to god program works, there are
several different assignments for the office of deacon, teacher, and priest that
include growing spiritual strength, understanding priesthood duties, and
understanding For Strength of Youth topics. The first step is learn, you study
scriptures or standards then write your impressions on the given topic. Second
you make goals on how to improve from the activities and carry out those goals.
Third, and the most important is share; this can be with quorum members or
family. Sharing is so important because your example can influence others to
begin their personal journey with the gospel though duty to god or even
personal progress, it’s never too late to start. In a talk given by Elder Cecil
L. Samuelson Jr. of the Seventy in 2002, he shares how Jesus as a 12 year old
boy competes his duty to god as outlined in Luke chapter 2. He says:
“The Savior, who suffered all things for us, faced challenges similar to
some we face in our Aaronic Priesthood years. You remember Jesus’s experience
at about the age when most of us become deacons. He had gone with His family
and others to the temple. When it came time to return home, He was not with
Mary and Joseph. They must have assumed that Jesus was with other trusted
friends or extended family members. Only when His absence persisted did they
become alarmed. As dutiful parents, Mary and Joseph did what your parents may
have done in similar circumstances: they went looking for Him. When they
located Jesus in the temple, only parents and grandparents might fully
appreciate the mixed sense of relief they felt that He was safe, but they also
were perhaps a little surprised by His reaction. We all know the dialogue that
ensued: “And when they saw him, they were amazed: and his mother said unto him,
Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? Behold, thy father and I have sought
thee sorrowing. And he said unto them, how is it that ye sought me? wist ye not
that I must be about my Father’s business?” 9
Jesus, in other words might have said, “Don’t you
know that I am doing my duty to God?”
Just as Joseph and Mary in Luke chapter 2, it would
be astonishing to hear your child say “What’s the big deal? I’ve only been
completing the ‘share’ portion my Duty to God for the past three days!” after
finding your son teaching a religion class at BYU. How great is it to be able
to relate this story of young Jesus to the Duty to God Program as it will
prepare you to the same work which Jesus Christ desired to do, his father’s work.
For the young women, the personal progress program
can prepare you for your personal mission as a daughter of God, by completing
and living by the activities and values that can be used to influence others
around you as you live to the standards accordingly.
Serving within the Church and doing service within
the Boy Scouts of America have placed a huge influence on me deciding to serve
a mission with the leadership positions I have held. After realizing my
personal responsibility as a priesthood holder to be a representative of our
Heavenly Father as a deacon and as a Boy Scout to help other people at all
times, I began to look for ways to share my beliefs and serve others outside of
my assigned tasks. About two and a half years ago, a rare snow storm coated St.
George Utah with several inches of snow which caught the whole city by
surprise. My family was lucky to witness the wild storm with a 4-Wheel Drive
Suburban and snow tires unlike the rest of the town while visiting my
Grandmother. St. George doesn’t see much snow, in fact they don’t see enough
snow to own a snow plow! It just so happened that my Grandmother was a proud
owner of a lovey yellow snow shovel. It’s possible that it was the only yellow
snow shovel within a fifty mile radius. Elder Donald L. Hallstrom of the
seventy reminds us of what our attitude and conduct should be as priesthood
holders and the sacred power that we are trusted with in his talk during a
general conference priesthood session “What Manner of Men”. He says “First we
need to be priesthood men! We should be spiritually mature because of the
covenants we have made. Second, we need to serve! Part of our covenant is to
serve by magnifying our calling. Third
We need to be worthy! The adversary has a tight grip around social
customs that can lead to serious problems of worthiness for not only priesthood
holders, these terms apply to everyone when seeking for answers from our
heavenly father. With that said, back to the snow storm… knowing that the roads
would still be pretty bad the next morning, I told myself I would go and shovel
the snow the next morning when I later found out that my grandmother’s
neighbors could also use the assistance with snow removal. Just as any other
teenage boy on the weekend, rolling out of bed wasn’t the easiest thing, but
laying there doing nothing wasn’t getting me closer to the delicious breakfast
that was being prepared for us. I was able to finish the shoveling at the first
house which seemed to be vacant without being noticed. As I made my way up the
street to the other house with the yellow snow shovel, I recall hearing that
the couple that lived there was not LDS and had accepted the invitation to go
to ward’s Christmas party a few times. There was defiantly someone home because
my cover was blown within a minute due to their dog. Not too long after that, a
man appeared from his garage and immediately asked if I was a boy scout, I
replied “yes”. You could defiantly see the excitement on his face as he replied
“oh great! Thank you so much!” As he made his way back in I imagined that he
was going to go tell his wife about news that a boy scout was shoveling his
drive way… “Hey Honey! There’s a boy scout shoveling our driveway!” Just as I
was finishing up, he came out one last time, I explained who I was and he
seemed that much more thrilled for the experience. Looking back on that unique
opportunity, I know that it wasn’t a coincidence that a rare snowstorm that
brought more snow than three years combind just happen to blow though St. George
while visiting the weekend. Chances like these happen more than you think, I
invite you to diligently seek out these opportunities in school, at church, and
at home. As you magnify for callings and duties within the church, you will
begin to see blessings unfold in yours and others lives. I testify of that.
(As my sister and Brother Newell have pointed out)
This year’s youth theme is D&C 4:2 Therefore,
O ye that embark in the service of God, see that ye serve him with all your
heart, might, mind and strength, that ye may stand blameless before God at the
last day. I have always questioned, what is the service of God as said in this
scripture. What are we embarking on? There are many things, we can be embarking
on including missionary work, family history, or it can be baptisms for the
dead. I see it as following the example of our savior Jesus Christ who desires
to share everything that he has been given from his father to his brothers and
sisters here on this Earth. D&C 4:4 says “For behold the field is white already to harvest;
and lo, he that thrusteth in his sickle with his might, the same layeth up in
store that he perisheth not, but bringeth salvation to his soul”. In closing I
bear my testimony that by investing your time in the salvation of your family,
friends, and neighbors as our savior and redeemer did, your lives will be
blessed immensely. There is no better time to embark in the service of god than
now. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
