Excerpts from Talks Given at the 1973 Priesthood MIA June Conference

Sister Ruth Hardy Funk
General President, Aaronic Priesthood MIA—Young Women

I would like this morning to speak as a woman, as a wife, as a mother, and as a grandmother. After I was seated here in this auspicious place, an usher brought me a little note with a rose. I would like to read it to you: “Mom, we can’t give you a blessing as did Dad and Judd this morning, but we give you the prayer in our hearts and the confidence that we know you will be able to express your thoughts better than you could have hoped. We love you, and we are very proud of you. Your daughters.” What greater blessing in all the world can a woman have than the blessing of the priesthood in her home, by a husband and by a son, and by that confidence expressed by dear and beautiful daughters who love the Lord?

We as members of this great church are entering into an era in this final dispensation, wherein women are being called and inspired to take their complete and rightful place in the homes and congregations of the world as they support and sustain the priesthood work that is now going forth. It is a testimony to me how the Lord has prepared the entire world for this further understanding of his priesthood and its blessings upon the lives of women and children as they seek to understand and assume their rightful roles.

Women of the world can gain the liberation they seek only by recognizing within themselves the gifts of womanhood, the gifts of motherhood, and satisfying them in the natural and divine role as found within the priesthood and as provided through those vessels of the Lord who are the bearers of the priesthood. This is the only key to our identity—the role we play in the priesthood of God. As one beautiful board member expressed: “I am not interested in liberation. I am interested in exaltation.”

Elder Robert L. Backman
General President, Aaronic Priesthood MIA—Young Men

When one of my daughters was eight or nine years old she came back from Sunday School one day. She had been serving as the president of her class. As we sat down to Sunday dinner, she heaved a huge sigh of relief and said, “I was released from being Sunday School class president this morning. Now I know what President McKay must feel like running the Church.”

How else do we learn except by participation and involvement? Do you recognize how few opportunities in the past we have given our youth to take responsibilities? I served as a mission president. I don’t think any other former or present mission president would disagree with me when I say that one of the chief concerns we have when young men and young women come into the mission field is that too few of them have ever learned what it means to take responsibility. This society of ours cripples us in teaching our youth to take responsibility. They can’t take jobs. It is against the law. There aren’t enough daily chores to keep a boy or a girl busy, so something else must be evolved to take the place of them. All too often nothing has, and so our young people grow up being spectators instead of participators in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Again I would ask you, how strong would your testimony be if you did not have an active role to play in the kingdom of God? I think that is what all of this comes down to. We must involve our youth—involve them not just as spectators but to be planners, to be implementers, to be evaluators. Out of that great process we think we are going to see a tremendous change take place as our young men and young women build strength of character to withstand the alien society in which we live, find the means to resist temptation, and then discover ways to serve, learning that happiness lies in losing themselves in selfless service to their fellowmen. That is what it is all about.

Bishop Vaughn J. Featherstone
Second Counselor in the Presiding Bishopric

I had the privilege as a general secretary of the Aaronic Priesthood one time of going to a home, and I thought about this visit. I wanted specific guidance. I didn’t want to shoot with a shotgun. I wanted this boy and he was the only one I was concerned about at this hour. And so as I walked up on the porch and knocked, here came a fine, sharp-looking fellow in a T-shirt. He was working in cement work and he was strong, a towhead in the sun, and as he stood there in the door, I said, “Duane, I have come to arm-wrestle you.” And he motioned to me to come in. And I want you to know I thought I had been had, but I went in anyway. He took everything off of the coffee table and we knelt down, and then we arm-wrestled. And I slowly put down his right arm, and he said, “Do you do it with the other arm?” And I said, “I do,” and so we arm-wrestled with the other arm, and I slowly edged him down. Then he said, “Do you Indian-leg wrestle?” I made a great mistake and said yes. We got down on the floor, and I don’t recall what happened after that. He rolled me over about three times to the fireplace. Then I made a second mistake and I said to him, “Do you do it with the other leg?” He said yes; then he rolled me back from the fireplace.

After this was over, I looked at him and said, “Duane, we need you over at church. We need your kind of person. Can you make it Sunday morning at priesthood meeting?” He looked at me for quite a while and said, “I will be there.”

I want to tell you, when we communicate on the right wavelength and we focus in on one individual soul, as the God of heaven does, we get results. God cares about every one of us, and he knows there is a burden that each heart carries. We must care and love, as the prophet has said, every soul that walks the earth.

Elder Marion D. Hanks
Assistant to the Council of the Twelve, and Associate Managing Director, Melchizedek Priesthood MIA

Reference was made this morning to DaNang in South Vietnam. During the height of the war, shortly before Christmas several years ago, I sat in a meeting there with a great body of Latter-day Saint troops and some friends who had come with them, the conflict all around us. We sang the songs of Christmas and of our faith. There was much of testifying and of preaching and witnessing, and there was a solo sung by a nineteen-year-old boy in the uniform of his country. He sang without accompaniment in a high tenor voice, sweet and clear, “Silent Night,” and all wept. I went to my place of rest that night, thoughtfully considering the early morning meeting when we would again be together. At dawn the next morning there was a knock on the door of my quarters. The nineteen-year-old was there. He had on his full battle gear, the grenades hanging from his belt, his gun in hand, his helmet in the other hand, apologetic in his approach, so humble and so gentle. He said, “I am very sorry to disturb you this morning, Brother Hanks. I thought I would be able to attend the meeting, but I pulled a mission and I can’t be there. I just wondered if you would mind letting me shake your hand one more time.” We shook hands and reached out beyond that in a warm embrace. And then he went to his mission, and I to my knees.

The worth of souls is very great in the sight of God, and the worth of those who have the stewardship for the souls who are the children of God is also very great, as is the responsibility. In the record the Lord teaches us that he who has a stewardship is expected to be in his place. He will have, it is said in holy writ, the blessing of answering for his stewardship in this life and in the world beyond. And if he is a just and faithful steward, a good steward, he will enjoy the blessings of God; yea, even the greatest of all blessings, eternal life.

President N. Eldon Tanner
First Counselor in the First Presidency

We all know that Satan swore to destroy the work of the Lord and to destroy mankind. We also know that he has done and is doing all in his power to accomplish his ends.

On the other hand God, the Father from the beginning, has warned us, instructed us, and given us the plan of life and salvation by revelation and by prophecy. From the time of Adam the prophets foretold the coming of Christ. These chosen prophets and leaders have received these revelations and directions all for the benefit and salvation of mankind.

Let us always remember that we are spirit children of God, and that God is interested in us and stands ready to answer our prayers and wants us to succeed. In fact, “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16.)

Presiding Bishop Victor L. Brown

Another very important principle involved is that of service. When we speak of service, we speak of person-to-person type service, the kind of service that was experienced in the lives of a group of Mia Maids. These young ladies had determined that they were going to visit one of the homes for elderly folk. They spent hours baking, cooking, trying new recipes, planning a program, writing new songs, etc.

At the appointed time the girls arrived at the home a little nervous and somewhat less enthusiastic about their idea. (Every one of you who has ever visited an old folks home cannot help but have a vivid picture of lost souls.) After the bags of cookies had been placed on a nearby table to ease the strain of the first few moments, the girls began to sing. As they did so, one or two patients raised up from their slumped positions on beds, and a few in wheelchairs pushed closer to the group. At that moment a miracle was taking place as the elderly responded to the sweet voices of youth. The girls then hummed a familiar tune while a foreign exchange student sang the words in German. From a bed in the next room, in soft but audible tones, an elderly gentleman joined in the words of his native tongue. A few quiet words of appreciation were expressed, and a different group of girls walked almost reverently down the steps of the old building.

Elder James E. Faust
Assistant to the Council of the Twelve, and Managing Director, Melchizedek Priesthood MIA

There is much in Melchizedek Priesthood MIA that is not of organization nor program, but rather of spirit and a reaching toward a second birth and a reawakening, followed by an eternal searching for that which is noble and good. It is about the necessity of being twice born that I desire to speak. Like Nicodemus, many will inquire, how can this be? The answer is still the same: Unless a man be born of the water and of the spirit, he cannot be twice born. To be spiritually born of God means that we must be able to answer affirmatively to the query of Alma, “Have ye experienced this mighty change in your hearts?” (Alma 5:14.)

James McCloy has told us about his easily distracted hunting dog. While hunting rabbits the dog would chase the rabbit until another rabbit ran across the path going in another direction. The dog would then leave the chase of the first and follow after the second rabbit, until a third rabbit crossed the path, going in still another direction and so on with the fourth and fifth and sixth rabbits being chased as each went in different directions. At the end of a fruitless day chasing many rabbits, but catching none, the dog was exhausted and his owner empty-handed.

To be born again means that we must exercise a faith that does not waver and is not easily distracted.

Illustrated by Dale Kilbourn