Now, to you who hold the Aaronic Priesthood, I say that I sincerely hope each of you is aware of the significance of your priesthood ordination. The priesthood is amazing because it's the power of God. Well, I'm a priesthood holder. That's one of the first things that I always think before anything; I'm a priesthood holder. I know that I have responsibilities; I have things that I have to do. Knowing that I have the Aaronic Priesthood makes me act differently because the Lord has expectations for me. And I have to do my best to uphold those expectations. So I can't just do what my friends are doing. I have to do what's best for me and what's best for the Lord. I think knowing that they hold the Aaronic Priesthood, they feel a responsibility to live to a higher standard. It influences how they act. It influences how they interact with others. They have a higher responsibility, and they feel that and know that. Those who bear the Aaronic Priesthood should be given opportunity to magnify their callings in that priesthood. We refer to the Aaronic Priesthood as the preparatory priesthood; and it is. But we find that sometimes when we say preparatory, we think of that as, "Wait. Stand back. Don't do anything. Just learn right now." And that's really not the case. The Aaronic Priesthood is really concerned with the ordinances here and now, and it's concerned with doing.

One of the most important things is that I can serve now. We talk about preparation for the Melchizedek Priesthood. But this is an important thing because this allows me to serve when I'm 12. This allows me to serve now. We have a project. We say, "Well, we have water for our older people." Then we say, "We're going to visit all the elderly people, make sure that they are fine." And these boys went to visit at least 16 families. They started with only for four or five, and they loved it. They liked it so much, and they said, "Brother Gamez, we want to visit more people." And then I gave them names, and said "Just go." And they did it. That's why I know that working in quorums and letting the boys take the lead is a miracle, and it works. As a Young Men presidency, we had a couple of our boys who hadn't come to church for several weeks. We began to be worried about them. And as a presidency, we called the home and tried to talk to the boys and the mother and encourage them to come out to church and to activities. Nothing seemed to be working. And so finally, as a presidency, we sat down and said, "You know what? We're not the key holders." And we decided to turn it over to the boys. And the boys decided that the teachers quorum president and one of the counselors would go visit the family. So after church, they jumped on the subway. They went over to the house. The mother welcomed them into the house. They stayed for a while. They chatted with the boys. They said they missed them and invited them to come back to our Young Men activities and back to church. And it worked--something that as a Young Men presidency we had not been able to do. When we allowed the Aaronic Priesthood and the key holders to take charge, we got the results we were hoping to get.