The Priesthood

I found myself thanking the Lord for my Priesthood this morning. It is a privilege to hold. It is an honor. It is a responsibility. It is an incalculable blessing.

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The Priesthood

“What is the purpose of the Priesthood?” the Sunday School teacher asked; and I answered, “To enable one to serve others.” She then wanted to know what experiences we’d had with the Priesthood. I have lots of thoughts about the Priesthood, and feel the need to write them down.

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Power of the Priesthood

Matt, suggested that I should gather my young grandsons and conduct a Priesthood preparation session. He wondered if that should be expanded to include all of my grandsons. I wondered if perhaps it should be expanded to include all of my Melchizedek Priesthood sons as well.

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Gifts

As I knelt to have my evening prayer I was interested to note the words that I used. I thanked my heavenly Father for “the gift of my marvelous wife,” and “the gift of the scriptures” that I was about to read. I then got into bed, opened the Book of Mormon, and the second verse that I read was Mormon telling the people that he was permitted to speak unto them “because of the gift of (God’s) calling unto (him).” (Moroni 7:2).

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Priesthood Foreordination

I was reading in my son’s history book about young men in the Greek city-state of Sparta. At birth baby boys were examined. Those that were judged unfit were placed on the mountain and left to die. Boys were taken from their families at age 7 and placed in the care of military trainers whose job was to make them tough and mean. They slept on a mat of rushes and lived lives devoid of comforts.

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The Lord Honors His Priesthood

Sunday I gave patriarchal blessings numbers 37 and 38. I fast and I pray before each blessing that the words which I speak may be given by the Spirit, and will be the blessings that the Lord desires the person to have. I am careful in my life that my thoughts and my actions may all be worthy ones so that I may be a fit conduit through which the Spirit may speak these blessings that I hope are from the Lord.

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A Priesthood Blessing For Spies

As a boy, I was inspired by a story of courage in Nauvoo, which involved my grandfather’s uncle. In the spring of 1844, some men were plotting against the Prophet Joseph Smith.

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Some Left, Some Stayed

It’s too bad, but you will also meet at many turns each day those who are helping Satan in his grim work to destroy. And you can easily recognize them too: They will show lack of courage; they will show lack of backbone, if you please, when it comes time to say no to something that is not right.

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Federal Official Tried to Take Over

It happened in the aftermath of a disaster. A dam in Idaho broke on a June day. A wall of water struck the communities below it. Thousands of people, mostly Latter-day Saints, fled their homes to go to safety.

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Responsibilities of Shepherds

When I was a very small boy, my father found a lamb all alone out in the desert. The herd of sheep to which its mother belonged had moved on, and somehow the lamb got separated from its mother, and the shepherd must not have known that it was lost.

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The Lord Opens a Way

May I share with you something of a personal and sacred testimony?
Nearly forty years ago I was on a mission in England. I had been called to labor in the European Mission office in London under President Joseph F. Merrill of the Council of the Twelve, then president of the European Mission.

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Stammering Priest Baptizes Girl

Almost thirty years ago I knew a boy, even a priest, who held the authority of the Aaronic Priesthood. As the bishop, I was his quorum president.

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Hearing Returned at Baptism

Some years ago, when I was serving as a bishop in a ward in Arizona, we had an unusual group of teenagers. Most of them had the courage to do what was right.

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Unto What Were Ye Ordained?

Just before arising this morning I had a strange dream. I got up thinking about it, and promptly forgot it. Two hours later I was sitting on the couch, having prayed and studied, and wondered what I could write about. I’d just read something about the Priesthood, but no topic came to mind. I closed my eyes to doze, and suddenly there was my dream again.

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Parable of the Dead Arm

There was once a man who was asked to speak to the men of his stake. His assignment was to wake the priesthood brethren up to the performance of their duty. How to do it was the question that weighed on his mind day after day.

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Elijah and the Sealing Power

“Behold, I will reveal unto you the Priesthood, by the hand of Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.

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Walking in Darkness at Noon-day

One night in our early married years, the phone rang after we’d turned out the lights and gone to bed. I leaped out of bed and ran in the dark from one end of the house to the other to answer it before it woke the baby. On the way, I stubbed my toe. I answered the phone in the pleasantest voice I could muster, and found that I was speaking to the bishop. I don’t remember what the conversation was about, but I distinctly remember the pain I was in from my throbbing toe. I’m sure Bishop Jarman would have been greatly distressed to know that I was suffering while talking to him, but I didn’t let him in on my secret.

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Making and Keeping Sacred Covenants

Covenants are never mentioned in other churches. The covenants have been forgotten. They’re not understood, they’re ignored, and are unimportant in their eyes.

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Blessed by the Spirit

In the last 50 years as I’ve given blessings to the sick and set people apart in their callings, I have given hundreds, and probably a thousand or more priesthood blessings.

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My Testimony

Garrin Bott is the first counselor in the bishopric of Baker Second Ward. As he conducted fast and testimony meeting today he presented a hypothetical situation,

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The Power of the Priesthood

Priesthood lesson given to Lovutialau Branch. Objective: Each man will honor his Priesthood, overcome his fright about using it, and make himself worthy.

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Priesthood and Motherhood

Question: A strange thing has come up in YW. One family has a mom that can “tap” into the priesthood and use the power herself. She has been called on to perform certain things in the name of the priesthood.

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A Miracle A Day

Elder Smith is the new senior missionary who arrived with his wife in Vanuatu nine days ago. As we walked together yesterday and marveled over our experiences, he remarked in a rather dazed manner, “It’s a miracle a day!”

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An Embarrassing Miracle

As I was preparing for bed on the evening of July 4th, my phone rang. It was Sister Torea, one of our sister missionaries. She was in tears, and scared. Her companion, Sister Lekupe, was very ill, had just fallen off the couch, and Sister Torea was unable to get her up off the floor.

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David Ruben

On Monday, 5 May 2014, Sister Allphin, a missionary, called to ask me to go to the hospital and administer a priesthood blessing to an investigator boy who had broken his leg.

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Cornelius

The story of Cornelius, as told in Acts chapters 10 and 11, is an interesting study. One wonders why and how he developed such faith. His story marks a pivotal point in the history of the Church.

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