By Jessica Poe
President Boyd K. Packer told the youth of the church to keep their bodies clean and their lives in line with the gospel, in a Church Education System fireside Sunday Feb. 2.
President Packer, acting president of The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, shared sections of his patriarchal blessing to illustrate how he gained a testimony of the importance of physical bodies.
His blessing revealed the need to cherish his body. It also gave him instruction to guard and protect it.
“All at once, I didn”t care what type of body I had,” President Packer said.
With the blessing of a physical body comes the responsibility to care for it and use its power to procreate appropriately.
“You must guard that sacred power with your life,” he said.
President Packer directed the youth to take care of their bodies by avoiding pornography, sexual temptation and following the Word of Wisdom.
“You know, marijuana isn”t listed in section 89 (of the Doctrine and Covenants), but neither is strychnine or arsenic… the point is, if you want to move on spiritually, and do as you ought to do in this life, that is one of the requirements,” President Packer said.
President Packer also addressed issues that the church has not made official statements about, like cloning, abortion, birth control and drinking caffeinated soft drinks.
“You don”t have to have a commandment for all things,” he said.
President Packer gave instruction to use the Holy Ghost for guidance when making decisions.
“We know what is right and what is wrong. We all know. That is a very important thing to understand,” President Packer said.
Although everyone knows what is right and wrong, everyone makes mistakes, he said.
“The gospel is a gospel of repentance. Repentance is a mathematical equation. Repentance equals forgiveness,” President Packer said.
