Sunday talk "The Priesthood"

My name is Waldo Gonzalez, I was born in El Paso, Texas. But I was basically raised here in Glendale. I’ve lived roughly in the same neighborhood since I was 11 but I’ve only been in this Stake for about 4 or 5 years. I am 31 years old. And I am a single male that has never been married and aged out of the single’s ward.

Feel free to judge accordingly.

For those of you who remember me from when I was a kid, I kept all the good things you remember and the fun ones that were bad. And for those who don’t know me……. I like long walks on the beach and am a sucker for anything remotely funny.
I served a mission in Mexico City back in 2006. As any ex-missionary can tell you, it was the best two years of my life until I realized that looking back on it like that was unfair to everything that happened afterwards. I got some really good stories I can tell you, but almost none of them relate to what I need to talk to you today.
Two weeks ago, a member of the bishopric came up to me and asked me to talk about the priesthood. I asked him if he had anything particular he wanted me to talk about, but he said, “no, just make it about the priesthood”. And so with the very broad subject of “the priesthood”, I’m going to give a 10 minute rundown.

To begin with, what is the priesthood? We learn from scriptures that the priesthood is the power and authority of God by which he created and governs all creation.

What does that mean to us? He has bestowed this power to us so that we can aid in the salvation of our fellow brothers and sisters.

What can we expect out of it? Although it can be used to perform miracles where extreme circumstances required a direct action from our Heavenly Father, we are taught to use it for comparatively more mundane acts, but much add up to be more significant portions of our lives. We are taught that we are to use to govern our homes in righteousness, to bless the sick and the afflicted, and to guide back those who are lost. It is used to seal families together for all time and eternity and to baptize those who begin their spiritual journey back to celestial glory. We are to use to is to bring hope to the hopeless and comfort those who need succor. The priesthood is to be used, above all, for charity.

Back in my mission, we were given a scripture to memorize every month. Most of these scriptures were 1 to 3 verses long and honestly, I’ve forgotten every single one of them except for one. Moroni 7:40 to 48.
And again, my beloved brethren, I would speak unto you concerning hope. How is it that ye can attain unto faith, save ye shall have hope?
41 And what is it that ye shall hope for? Behold I say unto you that ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal, and this because of your faith in him according to the promise.
42 Wherefore, if a man have faith he must needs have hope; for without faith there cannot be any hope.
43 And again, behold I say unto you that he cannot have faith and hope, save he shall be meek, and lowly of heart.
44 If so, his faith and hope is vain, for none is acceptable before God, save the meek and lowly in heart; and if a man be meek and lowly in heart, and confesses by the power of the Holy Ghost that Jesus is the Christ, he must needs have charity; for if he have not charity he is nothing; wherefore he must needs have charity.
45 And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
46 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail—
47 But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him.
48 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure. Amen.

There’s a church by my house that for the longest time has had on its sign, “It isn’t what you do, but why you do it”. And ever since I saw it, it’s bugged me. Until one day I had a eureka moment. What bothered me about it is that it isn’t “It isn’t what you do, but why you do it”, but rather “What you do is as important as to WHY you do it.”

Brothers and sisters, the priesthood was restored to this earth 1829 in this dispensation so that we can do God’s will. The priesthood is meant to be used in our daily lives in righteousness and with charity.
We are to strive higher and higher, grace by grace until we become like unto Nephi in the book of Helaman.
5 And now, because thou hast done this with such unwearyingness, behold, I will bless thee forever; and I will make thee mighty in word and in deed, in faith and in works; yea, even that all things shall be done unto thee according to thy word, for thou shalt not ask that which is contrary to my will.


Testimony

Focus and look straight forward

During the olden days of two thousand double-aught seven, I was a missionary in the ward of Lomas Lindas down in México. This was in the heart of México City and my companion was Elder Rodriguez. He was from some island in northern Veracruz or something. Anyways, this guy sold himself as being hard. He kept telling me about how he was all 'hood and his exploits on how he did everything his way. He was my junior companion.

Calm down ladies, notice the flip flops.

Anyways, this one time we have to do splits with our zone leaders. We agree on a place and time where we're going to meet up. And it all went downhill from there.

On that day, we arrive on where we're supposed to be, when we're supposed to and, the other Elders are late. This was back in 2007 and the only people who had cell phones were the zone leaders. We only had a prepaid phone card.

After a while we decide to call them, and they were stuck in traffic. Specifically, they were stuck behind a pilgrimage for La Virgen de Guadalupe and those guys were using the entire road. They were going to take maybe another hour and we had to wait for them. And we were to wait for them by a pedestrian bridge.

My companion, who legitimately thought he was an OG, decides that the best way to pass the time is to literally stare ahead. At what, who knows? And me, well, I had an hour to kill. My mind wandered.

via GIPHY


A couple minutes go by, and this cop looking guy starts walking up to us. While he's getting closer we realize that he's yelling. And he's saying that he caught us looking up girls' skirts on the pedestrian bridge. And that's when my heart sank.

Then it jumped right back to where it was supposed to be because he's yelling at my companion! He's yelling at Mr. Mugshot for supposedly trying to be a pervert. Elder Felipe and I look at each other because we both know it was me who would've been the sketchy one of the two. I'm the one trying to see if my neck can turn around like an owl. We find out this guy is a private security guard, and he's trying to tell us that we're breaking municipal code such and such and we should follow him over to the "station". It was his car over in the parking lot.

It became clear pretty fast that this aspiring mall cop is just looking for a bribe, and so we start arguing with the one-shirt-size-too-small rent-a-cop. But then he calls the real cops on us. We sneak a call to the zone leaders and they're telling us, "don't pay anyone, we'll be there eventually". The situation is slowly escalating to the point that I know I'll have to call my Mission President and explain to him why my companion is in jail.

Fortunately, a member from the ward pulls up in the nick of time and starts berating the fake flatfoot with, "I'm a lawyer and I know these two and you will be fired from your job!" All of it lies. He had been to church maybe twice since I'd been there.

In the end, the sticky gumshoe gave up just as our zone leaders show up.