Elder David B. Haight
Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
Priesthood is the power and authority delegated to man by our Heavenly Father.
The authority and majesty of it are beyond our comprehension.
What
a tremendous sight to look out at this Conference Center filled to capacity
and think of the buildings all over the world filled with the priesthood.
Probably this would be the largest gathering of the priesthood in the history
of the Church. I would imagine that would be true because we continue to grow
every year.
My first brush with the priesthood was when I
was baptized. I was baptized in an irrigation canal in the little town
of Oakley, Idaho.
I was with my friends on the bank of that irrigation canal. We had on our
bib swimming suits, which consisted of bib overalls with the legs cut out
so you wouldn't sink and holes cut in the pockets. We had never seen a
swimming
suit made out of knit or of other fabric. My father came out from the First
Ward meetinghouse with his counselors. He was carrying a chair, and he
put
the chair on the side of the irrigation ditch. My father said, "David,
come on over here; we're going to baptize you."
I dove in the canal and swam over to the other side, shivering.
It was in September and a little cold, and young boys get the shivers, you
know, when you have only bib overalls on. My father got down into the canal.
As I remember, he didn't take his shoes off or change anything but was just
in his regular clothes. He showed me how to hold my hands, and then he baptized
me. After I came up out of the water, we both crawled up on the bank of the
canal. I sat in the chair, and they put their hands on my head and confirmed
me a member of the Church. After that I dove in the canal and went over on
the other side and joined my friends.
This was my first experience, really, with the priesthood.
I would remind you that the priesthood is the
power and authority of God delegated to man. Let me say that again: The
priesthood is the power
and authority of God delegated to man. Here in these assemblies tonight,
we have those who hold the Aaronic Priesthood, the lesser priesthood, and
then
the Melchizedek Priesthood, the higher priesthood. Isn't it interesting to
visualize how the Lord and His Heavenly Father, in setting up the plan
of
salvation, organized it so that men could be worthy enough and could be honored
to hold the priesthood and join in the large army of men necessary to bring
about the eternal purposes of our Heavenly Father, to bring about the immortality
and eternal life of man—mankind everywhere? What a mighty group that
would entail!
A few years after I had been baptized, becoming better acquainted
with some duties in the Church, I was ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood.
My father, who had baptized me, had died in the meantime with a heart attack,
so the bishop conferred the Aaronic Priesthood upon me and ordained me to
the office of a deacon. I remember that I had a wonderful feeling about that
as he conferred the priesthood upon me, that I now had responsibilities and
would be accountable for my actions and would have things to learn to do as
I would progress through life. I did have a special feeling that I now was
a little different, that I wouldn't be exactly the same as friends who did
not hold the priesthood or people that you would meet out in the world. I
now had some responsibilities, things we would learn on Sundays in church
as we would sit around the old coal stove down in the basement of the meetinghouse.
On Saturdays, we would clean out the church,
fill the coal buckets with coal, and see that the building was ready for
Sunday meetings.
We had things to do in the lesser priesthood, in all the temporal affairs
of the ward—collecting fast offerings and doing duties for the bishop.
He and other leaders would teach us about the Aaronic Priesthood and the
office
of a deacon, then a teacher, and then, of course, a priest as we would advance
in the priesthood. It seemed to me that I was developing an interesting
understanding,
a vision of the work to be done, and that I personally had some responsibility,
even though I was just a young boy in a little country town. There was
something
very important about it.
When I was 11 years old, my father died, and
at his funeral I was very touched as I heard the people speaking about
what a kind man he
had been. At the cemetery as they were lowering the casket down in the grave
and starting to throw those shovels full of dirt and rocks down on the
casket,
I stood watching, thinking he was my hero, and I wondered what would ever
happen to me having lost my father. I saw good men exercising the priesthood
and doing what was right—the men who had helped in digging the grave and
taking care of things—and I saw a good man push a five-dollar bill back
into the hands of my mother, who had offered him some money for helping to
dig the grave. He pushed that money back towards my mother and said, "No,
you keep it because you will need this later on."
And so, I would like to declare to all of you in these assemblies
tonight, in the Aaronic Priesthood and the Melchizedek Priesthood, isn't it
interesting in the wisdom of our Heavenly Father and His Son, in putting all
of these things together, how in the lesser priesthood we learn to do the
temporal chores? We'll have temporal duties, learning in a humble, simple
way those things that need to be done. This will teach us of service and of
living the commandments of the Lord, preparing us so that we someday will
be advanced to the Melchizedek Priesthood, with all of the majesty and the
eternal glory that that entails.
Those Aaronic Priesthood years were interesting years in my
life. I was always learning new things and always getting a little broader
concept and feeling about the gospel and our responsibility in carrying this
message out to all the world. In that process we learned to mingle with other
people. Sometimes we have the feeling that people might not accept us because
we have higher standards. There are things that we don't do. We have the Word
of Wisdom, which helps us to live a healthier life, a type of life that is
conducive to our growing into manhood and having the standards and ideals
and a way of living that most of the world would like to have. I found that
if you live the way you should live, people notice it, and are impressed with
your beliefs, and then you have an influence on other people's lives. When
they find out that they don't have to indulge in the smoking or the drinking
or the pot, the drugs that are affecting the world so negatively, the fact
that you don't do that has an influence on those people.
Maintaining your standards qualifies you for
marriage in the temple. Incidentally, this is the 173rd Annual General
Conference of the Church,
and for just a bit of trivia, my wife and I have been married 73 years. So
the year we were married, the Church would have been holding the 100th
annual
conference. I can remember that as I was holding Ruby's hand across the altar
of the temple—listening to the words of the sealing ceremony—I
had a special feeling in my heart, not only of the sacredness of it but
of the responsibility
I had to live as I should live, to take care of her and our children, and
then our grandchildren, and then the other generations that would come
along.
I was determined to set an example of living the way a person can live in
honoring the priesthood and our marriage covenant.
Tonight while we meet as priesthood holders,
just think of the responsibility each one of us has as we consider what
has to come about
in this world—probably new things that we are not aware of today—after
this war is over and things have been put back the way they should be. There’s
so much for us to do. For us to do it, we need to be worthy of the priesthood
that we have so that we can help in leading out as the Church moves on, perhaps
in a broader way than we've ever done before. What a day that will be!
A few years ago, when I was in the navy during World War II,
I received orders to report to the fleet headquarters at Pearl Harbor. My
family took me to Treasure Island in the San Francisco Bay, where I boarded
the plane there, an old sea plane called a Pan-American clipper. On board
that plane were some high-ranking medical officers going out to prepare and
build up the hospital support because the battle of Tarawa would be taking
place within a few weeks. Because of my rank, I was assigned to sleep in a
sleeping bag out in the tail of that plane, where I could see the starboard
engines as we were flying over San Francisco, which was under military blackout.
It was black as we were flying out into the Pacific, and I thought the starboard
engine on that old Pan-American plane was on fire. I couldn't sleep as I watched
it throughout the entire flight.
During that sleepless night I wondered about
my own life and whether I had been living up to the opportunities that
would be mine and the
responsibility that would be mine as a holder of the Melchizedek Priesthood—the
responsibility to be an example and to live the way I should so that I would
be able to fulfill the calls that might come to me. In that sleepless night
I took an inventory of myself, of my attitudes, wondering if I was doing
all
that I might. Even though I had always accepted my Church assignments, I
wondered if I was fulfilling them with all of my heart, might, mind, and
soul and living
up to the responsibility, the blessing, that I received as a holder of the
Melchizedek Priesthood and what would be expected of any of us who received
this blessing.
Looking back on that sleepless night, I thank the Lord for
His blessings today and for all that I have had the opportunity to be involved
in. I try always to live the gospel to the fullest, to do everything I am
called on to do with all of my heart, might, mind, and strength, to fulfill
any call that might come to me so I may be qualified to do whatever I might
be asked to do someday.
On this night when we are honoring the priesthood,
you young men of the priesthood, resolve to live the way you should. Don't
be caught
up in some of the silly things that are going on in the world, but bear
in mind what has been given to you. I will repeat again, priesthood is the
power
and authority delegated to man by our Heavenly Father. The authority and
the majesty of it are beyond our comprehension.
I bear you my witness, my testimony, that this work is true.
I'm glad to be able, in the twilight of my life, to stand and bear witness
of the truthfulness of the gospel, as I have witnessed it all the days of
my life from my baptism on until the present time. I love the Lord. I love
our Heavenly Father and this work. I bear witness to the truthfulness of this
work.
And to all of you priesthood leaders, live as you should.
We are different, and it is not good for you to be like everybody else because
you hold the priesthood of God, with those great promises and blessings and
expectations of you.
This work is true. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
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