Bearers of the priesthood have been placed on the earth during troubled times but can make a difference, President Thomas S. Monson declared during the Saturday evening priesthood session.
"When we qualify for the help of the Lord, we can build boys, we can mend men, we can accomplish miracles in His holy service," the newly sustained Church president said.
"Ours is the task to be fitting examples. We are strengthened by the truth that the greatest force in this world today is the power of God as it works through man. If we are on the Lord's errand, we are entitled to the Lord's help. That divine help, of course, is predicated upon our worthiness. Each must ask: Are my hands clean? Is my heart pure? Am I a worthy servant of the Lord?"
He asked young priesthood holders if they are worthy to administer and pass the sacrament. "Does each of you fully understand the importance of all the sacred duties you perform?" he asked.
President Monson urged young men to be strong, warning that "the face of sin today often wears the mask of tolerance. Do not be deceived; behind that facade is heartache, unhappiness and pain. You know what is right and wrong, and no disguise, however appealing, can change that. The character of transgression remains the same. If your so-called friends urge you to do anything you know to be wrong — you be the one to make a stand for right, even if you stand alone."
Addressing Melchizedek Priesthood holders, he asked if they diligently strive each day to live as they should. "Are you kind and loving to your wife and your children?" he asked. "Are you honest in your dealings with those around you — at all times and in all circumstances?"
He said as he has pondered how priesthood holders might set examples of righteousness, he has thought of an experience he had some years ago while attending a stake conference. Sitting on the stand, he noticed a young boy sitting with his family on the front row of the stake center. The boy would imitate each action of President Monson: crossing one leg over the other, putting his hands in his lap, resting his chin on his hand, and so forth.
"I decided to put him to the test," President Monson related. "I looked squarely at him, certain I had his attention, and then I wiggled my ears."
President Monson then demonstrated by wiggling his ears, bringing laughter from the priesthood brethren assembled in the Conference Center.
Continuing the account, he said the boy "made a vain attempt to do the same, but I had him! He just couldn't quite get his ears to wiggle. He turned to his father, who was sitting next to him, and whispered something to him. He pointed to his ears and then to me. As his father looked in my direction, obviously to see my ears wiggle, I sat solemnly with my arms folded, not moving a muscle. The father glanced back skeptically at his son, who looked slightly defeated. He finally gave me a sheepish grin and shrugged his shoulders."
President Monson said he has thought about that experience over the years and contemplated how young people tend to imitate the example of parents, leaders and peers.
"To you who are fathers of boys or who are leaders of boys, I say strive to be the kind of example the boys need," he urged. He added that for boys who have no father or whose father is not providing the kind of example needed, there is a network of helpers within the Church, "bishops, advisers, teachers, Scoutmasters, home teachers. When the Lord's program is in effect and properly working, no young man in the Church should be without the influence of good men in his life."
President Monson said the primary example for priesthood holders is the Savior, Jesus Christ. "What finer example could we strive to emulate?" he asked. "Let us begin now, this very night, to do so. Cast off forever will be the old self and with it defeat, despair, doubt and disbelief. To a newness of life we come — a life of faith, hope, courage and joy. No task looms too large, no responsibility weighs too heavily, no duty is a burden. All things become possible."
One who took his example from the Savior, President Monson said, is Thomas Michael Wilson, the son of Willie and Julie Wilson of Lafayette, Ala.
As a teenager, he was stricken with cancer, which, after treatment, went into remission. Later, the family began to look to religion to help them through a time of tribulation and were subsequently introduced to the Church. After his baptism, Thomas Michael Wilson yearned for the chance to be a missionary, even though he was older than most young men when they begin their missionary service. At age 23, he received his call to serve in the Utah Salt Lake City Mission.
"Elder Wilson's missionary companions described his faith as unquestioning, undeviating and unyielding," President Monson recounted. "He was an example to all. However, after 11 months of missionary service, illness returned. Bone cancer now required the amputation of his arm and shoulder. Yet he persisted in his missionary labors."
An investigator whom Elder Wilson taught was baptized but then wanted to be confirmed by him, President Monson said. "She, with a few others, journeyed to Elder Wilson's bedside in the hospital. There, with his remaining hand resting upon her head, Elder Wilson confirmed her a member of the Church."
Ultimately, the missionary returned, and President Monson answered an invitation to be with the Wilson family in the Jordan River Temple, where they were sealed together for eternity.
"I can see Elder Wilson yet as he thanked me for being with him and his loved ones," President Monson said. "He said, 'It doesn't matter what happens to us in this life as long as we have the gospel of Jesus Christ and live it. It doesn't matter whether I teach the gospel on this or the other side of the veil, so long as I can teach it.'... The Wilson family made the long trek home to Lafayette, where Elder Thomas Michael Wilson slipped from here to eternity. He was buried with his missionary tag in place."
