2013 Letter

My dear young Brothers of the Aaronic Priesthood,

I am impressed with you accomplishment - you are one of the unique ones who really made it!  How I wish I could be up there with you viewing the heavens and the earth you are viewing, feeling what you are feeling, and signaling other like you are signaling with your bright reflective lights.  You paid the price and this is a time to always remember. 

This makes you PECULIAR!  Peculiar means you are DIFFERENT from the usual; SPECIAL; or, if we go back to the original Hebrew term "seghullah" on which it was based, means you are a TREASURED POSSESSION.

1 Peter 2:9 states you "...are a chose generation... a peculiar people; that [He] hath called out of darkness into His marvelous light." You are a peculiar young men and the Lord's special treasure "For such a time as this!"  You each need to be a bright light to the whole world which now has many places of darkness.  The Savior described what you light should be when he said "Hold up you light that it may shine unto the world.  Behold, I am the light which ye shall hold up..." (3 Nephi 18:24).  In the 2013 Mutual theme, He calls you to "stand in Holy Places" so you can be a beacon of light by having His image in your countenance always and to all nations.

I love lighthouses!  They are towers with extremely bright powerful lights that, if the lens and glass are clean, serve as navigational aids for mariners.  Each lighthouse shines its own special pattern of light known as its "characteristic of light."  The characteristics and locations of lighthouses are recorded in books called "light lists."  Those at sea determine which lighthouse they are seeing, and therefore their location, by observing the characteristic of the light being broadcast and then consult the "light list" for its identification.

As I look at young men of the Aaronic Priesthood like you, I feel the power and especially the potential of your spiritual characteristics.  Each of you is unique in your light characteristics just as the lighthouse.  You must always be one of those bright lights on the highest mountains broadcasting to all.

Heavenly Father is mindful of you; knows how you can uniquely shine your light to others; and even who those others are.  You are a unique part of His "light list" for the world.  You need to know this, and knowing that He knows, go to Him for all your direction.  Please know that Heavenly Father never intended this life to be just about you but all those who will be blessed by you!  It has been said that "It would be a poor lighthouse that fives a different signal to every ship."  Ever be that lighthouse that is always bright and true in every way.

Our Father in Heaven, is the "Lighthouse Ever More" and loves you infinitely; our elder brother, Jesus the Christ who has that same love for you is the "perfect light" and has shown you the exact way to follow in being a light; and, the Holy Ghost, because of his perfect love for you is always waiting for you to ask, which allows him to testify of the truthfulness of all things to your heart.  He is also the transmitter of you light to the hearts of others as you faithfully keep your lens and glass pure and spotless.

May your countenance always be cheerful and bright and your faith always sufficient to continually draw you to the light of the Savior.

Sincerely you Priesthood brother,

Larry M. Gibson

1st Counselor, Young Men General Presidency