Wednesday early morning as I left the St. George temple I paused at my usual place in front of this painting, and thoughts of the theme for this month flooded my heart. I always look a week ahead to consider what I will prepare for singing time for the next week. I have been studying the Come Follow Me outlines for teaching our youth, and that becomes my train of thought when I have a few minutes to ponder. As I stood there, I realized that it was priesthood keys those great leaders sought from President Woodruff that day. They did GREAT things in their lives, even gave their life for the freedoms I enjoy. Usually as I pause there, my thoughts are directed towards the leaders of our day, and I whisper a prayer asking those great men to please influence and help the leaders trying to lead today! Last year a mist the presidential election, I plead for them to please help take charge of our country. We live in such a world of turmoil! 
This week, Priesthood Power and Keys were on my mind. The theme for Primary today was baptism and confirmation. We are asked to teach the song "When I am Baptized." At the very beginning, Sister H expressed this was not her favorite song, that it is not quite right. She explained that "our sins are not just washed away." That is the beginning of the second verse. She continued, besides 8 yr olds don't have any sin to wash away. Jesus didn't need his sins washed away. We get baptized to show obedience. Sins are not just washed away, we have to repent of them, and through the sacrifice of our Savior we can be made clean. When we accept Him and repent of the sin, then they are washed away, but it is not as simple as just water washing something away. I was prepared to talk about Priesthood Keys. I looked until wayyyy tooo late last night (or this morning) to find my color prints of that painting from the temple. I didn't find them, but it turned out ok. I took an odd key (from my old cub shelf) that doesn't go to anything, and talked about how we need to use the key in order for it to do any good! We can't just put the key in our pocket, if we don't even know what it goes to, what good is that? We want to drive that cute sports car, but if we never try to insert our key, we will never know if we held the key all the while! Then we have to turn it - we have to do some work to make it useful in our lives. I took the Aaronic Priesthood keys that we made several years back that list the responsibilities of each office in that Priesthood. We talked about which office holds the keys to baptism. Then I showed this picture of Joseph Smith and Oliver with John the Baptist on the banks of the Susquehanna River. (Here is another link with photos of that river) I am grateful to have walked there, to have felt the peace that is there. I pray that for my children it touched their hearts, and testified as it did to mine that this really happened. It is a beautiful peaceful spot on the banks of a river. Nothing spectacular, nothing expensive, or out of reach or impossible. They asked of God, and He sent angels to direct their paths. I know this really happened. I know that the keys of the Priesthood of God had been taken from the earth, and they were restored through John the Baptist to the Prophet Joseph and his scribe Oliver. These were both men of God, doing all they could to daily be learning and growing in spiritual strength.
In primary, I testified of the importance of the proper keys, that those great leaders from history came back after we had a temple, seeking the proper keys. I love these quotes from President Woodruff about journals and his record of their visit in the temple. Then we played hot and cold, singing songs, searching for the key. We sang We Thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet, Fathers, We have been Born and When I am Baptized. I felt good about singing time together even though everyone was really wiggly. They liked the rainbows and followed well. They loved doing the hot and cold key hunt, some hiding harder than others! I am grateful to have Priesthood Keys active in my home! I love the Lord and am grateful for His power here on earth. I know that the power of keys is something we need to consider if we are just admiring the power from the curb, or if we have enjoyed the journey that key was given to us to unlock!