This booklet has been prepared to assist you in your sacred preparation and invitation to “receive the Holy Priesthood,” to “put on the armor of righteousness,” to “stand in holy places,” and to be “unspotted from the world.” It is intended to be read with your parents (especially your father or another priesthood holder) so that you can learn from their experiences in the priesthood. Receiving the Melchizedek Priesthood involves making sacred covenants with God that cannot be treated lightly. If you are worthy to receive the Melchizedek Priesthood, then you are worthy to receive the blessings of the temple (additional priesthood covenants) and to serve a full-time mission.
You have been privileged to be born in the last days – the glorious days appointed to prepare the earth for Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Many of you have received your patriarchal blessings wherein you received a divine witness that your Father in Heaven knows you personally and that He has a divine mission for you to perform on this earth. Each of you has been prepared for this day – a day of immense glory and a day of immense temptation – a day of choosing - choosing to follow the world or choosing to become who you are foreordained to be. - As the Lord has said, “There has been a day of calling, but the time has come for a day of choosing; and let those be chosen that are worthy” (D&C 105:35). Each of you must “choose you this day whom ye will serve” (Joshua 24:15). The choice is yours and yours alone to be found clean, worthy, and prepared to serve the Lord your God.
Greater happiness than you can imagine is reserved for those that honor God and receive all that He desires to give his children as they walk in obedience to His commandments. The Melchizedek Priesthood is essential to enter His temple, to serve a full-time mission, and to receive eternal life. It will require your greatest attention and effort to withstand the subtle temptations of Satan – who seeks to disqualify you from the Holy Priesthood and destroy your happiness and future. The Melchizedek Priesthood is the power of God and is the most important stewardship given to men – for without this power, families are not eternal and man cannot be saved.
As you prayerfully read, study, and seek to understand the sacred covenants of the Holy Priesthood, you will receive divine revelation in how you are to prepare, to receive, to honor, and to hold the priesthood of God. We testify that this is one of the most important steps of your eternal progression from which all happiness and eternal joy comes.
The Salem Utah Stake Presidency
