He speaks (1/2021)

 Jack gave his first talk in sacrament. Assigned by his dad, he had to consider the ways in which the priesthood helps youth.  Jack has taken incredible ownership of his responsibility to pass the sacrament. And he's been given a lot of this responsibility. (In light of the fact that he is the only deacon who attends church every week, he is usually directing the process.) He does so with reverence and attention to detail. If I would've had input on his talk, I'd have gushed about how much difference this past year has made. (Grandpa who hasn't seen him for the past year would agree!)

Hi for those of you who do and don’t know me my name is Jack Parry and I am 12 and a half. This is a first for a couple of things. This is my first time doing a talk in front of the whole church, and I think I am the first youth speaker of 2021. My topic is, How the priesthood helps the youth by Brother Enzo Petelo a youth who spoke at the April 2020 general conference. When my dad first told me to speak at church it came up like this, Hey Jack can you please come to my office… my BISHOP office. I slowly walked in and I knew this was going to happen but it took me a little while to actually say yes that I would speak. Anyway in the talk, it says  “We are given the opportunity to minister like angels, to preach the gospel on all the continents of the earth, and to help souls come unto Christ. This service places us in joint labor with John the Baptist, Moroni, Joseph Smith, President Russell M. Nelson, and other diligent servants of the Lord.” This means when the new young men get the priesthood they become diligent servants for god all the way until they die and they still have the blessing of the priesthood even when we die so we are always going to be servants of the lord. In his talk, he defines the priesthood really well he says, “ The Priesthood is the authority to minister the ordinances and covenants of the savior’s gospel to those who are worthy to receive it.” I have the priesthood and I can pass the ordinances of the sacrament and I pass it to those who are worthy to receive it. Passing the ordinances of the sacrament in 2020 has made me super flexible. I first was a deacon when there was no Covid. I made it my youth goal to learn all 6 passing routes so I could help people who were new and struggling to learn them. It was so easy to teach people back then because the routes never changed. We always had to have 6 deacons or we had to pull out a teacher or a priest. Now when we taught the new deacons this year we only taught them 3 routes because we never use the others and we almost never have more than 3 or 4 passing. Even though we still use the basics none of the passing routes are ever the same. Passing the sacrament has made me listen to the speaker more because before I would bring a notebook and a pen or pencil and I would draw the whole time and not remember who even spoke now I have listened to the speakers more because I understand the most important part of church or most important part of the week, better because I am apart of the sacrament. Even though it is a big job and sometimes hard I am grateful for the opportunities to pass the sacrament and to have to priesthood. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen