October 1998 General Conference Priesthood Session

Dallin H. Oaks - The Aaronic Priesthood and the Sacrament

• To have the continuous companionship of the Holy Ghost is the most precious possession we can have in mortality.
• The ministering of angels can also be unseen. Angelic messages can be delivered by a voice or merely by thoughts or feelings communicated to the mind.
• Most angelic communications are felt or heard rather than seen.
• All who officiate in the sacrament--in preparing, administering, or passing--should be well groomed and modestly dressed, with nothing about their personal appearance that calls special attention to themselves. In appearance as well as actions, they should avoid distracting anyone present from full attention to the worship and covenant making that is the purpose of this sacred ordinance.
• With the single exception of those priests occupied breaking the bread, all who hold the Aaronic Priesthood should join in singing the sacrament hymn by which we worship and prepare to partake. No one needs that spiritual preparation more than the priesthood holders who will officiate in it. My young brethren, it is important that you sing the sacrament hymn. Please do so.

D. Todd Christofferson - The Priesthood Quorum

• "A quorum is three things: first, a class; second, a fraternity; and third, a service unit."
• "If priesthood meant only personal distinction or individual elevation, there would be no need of groups or quorums. The very existence of such groups, established by divine authorization, proclaims our dependence upon one another, the indispensable need of mutual help and assistance."

H. Bryan Richards -"As for Me and My House, We Will Serve the Lord"

• Parents, do you realize what great power you have in the lives of your sons?
• "True doctrine, understood, changes attitudes and behavior."
• There is not anything a young man can do that will be any more important than serving a full-time mission. The good they do as servants of the Lord Jesus Christ will carry on into eternity.
• The greatest army of missionaries ever assembled in the history of the world is serving today. Don't let your sons miss being part of that great army.

James E. Faust - "By What Power ... Have Ye Done This?"

• In its simplest terms, wars are often caused by a great lust for power.
• Power is highly attractive. It can be both good and bad.
• "The Lord gave us power in proportion to the work to be done, and strength according to the race set before us, and grace and help as our needs required."

Thomas S. Monson -Today Determines Tomorrow

• Our children are watching. They are absorbing eternal lessons. They are shaping their futures. What is the example we are presenting to them?
• Our youth need less criticism and more models to follow.
• Remember, it isn't sufficient to assume that when you teach, the boy is listening to what you say.
• Missionaries teach truth. They dispel darkness. They spread joy. They bring precious souls to Christ.

Gordon B. Hinckley - To the Boys and to the Men

• You are not "dead-end" kids. You are not wasting your lives in drifting aimlessly. You have purpose. You have design. You have plans that can only lead to growth and strength.
• When your energies are harnessed, when your dreams are focused, marvelous things happen.
• I have learned to live what I believe.
• My greatest blessing in life is to be alive.
• The time has come to get our houses in order.
• There is a portent of stormy weather ahead to which we had better give heed.
• "Once in debt, interest is your companion every minute of the day and night; you cannot shun I tor slip away from it; you cannot dismiss it; it yields neither to entreaties, demands, or orders; and whenever you get in its way or cross its course or fail to meet its demands, it crushes you."
• I recognize that I may be necessary to borrow to get a home, of course. But let us buy a home that we can afford and thus ease the payments which will constantly hang over your heads without mercy or respite for as long as 30 years.
• No one knows when emergencies will strike.
• "If there is any one thing that will bring peace and contentment into the human heart, and into the family, it is to live within our means. And if there is any one thing that is grinding and discouraging and disheartening, it is to have debts and obligations that one cannot meet."
• One has neither independence nor freedom from bondage when he is obligated to others.
• In managing the affairs of the Church, we have tried to set an example. We have, as a matter of policy, stringently followed the practice of setting aside each year a percentage of the income of the Church against a possible day of need.
• I am grateful to be able to say that the Church in all its operations, in all its undertakings, in all of its departments, is able to function without borrowed money. If we cannot get along, we will curtail our programs. We will shrink expenditures to fit the income. We will not borrow.
• What a wonderful feeling it is to be free of debt, to have a little money against a day of emergency put away where it can be retrieved when necessary.
• Pay off debt as quickly as you can, and free yourselves from bondage.

Until you next see these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi