I wanted to run away, but the expressions of love and faith that shone from the eyes of the parents and brothers and sisters kept me glued to the spot. Though my knowledge of the language was still limited, I understood what they wanted, and I was scared. The faithful father and mother put him in my arms and said, “You have the Melchizedek Priesthood bring him back to us whole and well.” They wailed out that he had fallen from a mango tree and would not respond to anything.
One afternoon we heard cries of anguish and saw a family bringing the limp, seemingly lifeless body of their eight-year-old son to us. I struggled with the heat, the mosquitoes, the strange food, culture, and language, as well as homesickness. I was given a local companion named Feki who was then serving a building mission and was a priest in the Aaronic Priesthood.Īfter eight seasick days and nights on a small, smelly boat, we arrived at Niuatoputapu. My first assignment was to a small island hundreds of miles from headquarters, where no one spoke English, and I was the only white man. I learned this lesson well as a young missionary years ago in the South Pacific. Thus, any properly ordained man who is clean in hand, heart, and mind can connect with the unlimited power of the priesthood. In His love for us, God has decreed that any worthy man, regardless of wealth, education, color, cultural background, or language, may hold His priesthood. An ancient Oriental saying declares, “If a man lives a pure life, nothing can destroy him.” 3 When we are humble, clean, and pure of hand, heart, and mind, nothing righteous is impossible. Unclean thoughts and actions interfere with individual priesthood power.
Filth and grime slow or prevent the flow of electrical power. Just as clean wires, properly connected, are required to carry electrical power, so clean hands and pure hearts are required to carry priesthood power. Thus, we see that while the power of the priesthood is unlimited, our individual power in the priesthood is limited by our degree of righteousness or purity. “No power or influence can or ought to be maintained by virtue of the priesthood, only by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned.įor if we “exercise control or dominion or compulsion upon the souls of the children of men, in any degree of unrighteousness, behold, the heavens withdraw themselves the Spirit of the Lord is grieved and when it is withdrawn, Amen to the priesthood or the authority of that man.” 2 God wants us, His sons, to hold His priesthood and learn to use it properly. Through its power, ordinances are performed which, when accompanied by righteousness, allow families to be together forever, sins to be forgiven, the sick to be healed, the blind to see, and even life to be restored. Through its power, worlds-even universes-have, are, and will be created or organized. Fellow bearers of the priesthood everywhere: I hope we appreciate the priceless privilege of holding the priesthood of God.